Take Two
by NazChick
Summary: It has been six years since Ron has disappeared and Hermione has moved on. Now she is partnered with Draco and they must work together in order to stop the rise of new dark wizards,but will more come out of this partnership?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! This is my third Draco/Hermione story and the result of an idea that would not leave me alone last night. I hope you like it and trust me there will be more!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

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><p>Hermione stood on the platform with her children, Rose was bouncing on the balls of her feet she was so excited to be starting Hogwarts. Hugo stood next to his sister looking around for someone.<p>

"Mom, didn't Uncle Harry say that they would be here today?" asked Hugo impatiently

"They will be honey; they do need to get James and Albus on the train after all." said Hermione towards her youngest, "Rose would you please calm down, I know it's exciting but that hardly means you can be jumping around."

"Sorry mom." said Rose as she tried to keep herself from moving too much

Just then Hermione spotted Harry and Ginny making there way through the crowed, James, Albus and Lily behind them. Hermione was glad that Harry and Ginny could also be here to show Rose off to school, ever since Ron vanished on an auror mission when Hugo was three it had been hard raising her two children.

"There they are!" shouted Hugo having finally spotted the Potters

"Ready for Hogwarts Rose?" asked Harry as he hugged his niece and nephew

"You bet!" said Rose excitingly

"She's been talking about it all morning." Hermione chipped in

"Yeah and all summer." said Hugo

"Oh be quiet, you'll be excited when you can go too." said Rose glaring at her brother for trying to ruin her mood

"Harry can you get Rose's trunk up on the train?" Hermione asked

"Sure thing." said Harry

As Harry got both Rose's and Albus' trunks on the train, the two cousins began to talk.

"What house do you think you'll be in Albus?" asked Rose

"Gryffindor of course! Well at least that's what I hope, James keeps telling me that I'll be in Slytherin." responded Albus "What about you?"

"Ravenclaw most likely, although I would like to be in Gryffindor it would have made my dad proud."

Hermione heard this last statement her daughter made and glanced worriedly down at her. Rose and Hugo may have accepted that their father was most likely dead but it still never made certain events any better. It also didn't help that their Grandmother, Molly Weasley, was so sure that Ron was still alive that she never referred to him as dead. Even when the family held a small funeral four years after his disappearance, Molly still wouldn't believe it, it was very hard for the rest of the family to see her deny what was most likely true.

"Your dad would be proud where ever you end up Rose." said Ginny, "And Albus don't let James get to you, the hat will place you where it thinks is best."

Rose smiled at her Aunt before turning to her mother to say good bye.

"Bye mom." said Rose giving her mother a big hug

"Bye sweetie, behave got it? And make sure you do all your school work, and make lots of friends alright?" said Hermione

"I will mom, I promise and you really should go on a date or two before I get back at Christmas."

Hermione laughed a bit at her daughter's antics, about two years ago Hermione had decided to go back to her maiden name since Ron was listed as dead; Molly hadn't liked that one bit and refused to speak to her for almost a whole year before the rest of the family could get her to understand that Ron wouldn't want Hermione to be unhappy the rest of her life. Ever since then Rose and Ginny had been tag teaming to get Hermione to go on dates, while Hermione didn't want to replace Ron as Rose and Hugo's father figure she did want them to have a male figure in their life that wasn't one of their uncles.

"I'll do my best dear." said Hermione with a smile

"Good, see you at Christmas!"

Rose hugged Hermione once more and then Hugo before getting on the train with Albus. Watching the train leave the station, Hermione once again found herself wishing Ron was there to share this moment with his kids; while she had moved on it was these little things that she had always pictured Ron at her side.

"Mom, are we going to head home now?" asked Hugo getting his mom's attention

"Of course."

"Hermione and Hugo said goodbye to Harry, Ginny and Lily before heading in the direction of the barrier to get back to the muggle world; as they made their way Hermione happened to notice a flash of blonde hair as a tall man walked through the barrier in front of them. Once they reached the other side the man had vanished but Hermione found herself wondering who the stranger was.

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><p>The next morning, Hermione found Rose's owl Comet sitting on the back of a kitchen chair when she walked into the kitchen. She removed the letter from the owl before giving her a treat and starting breakfast. Just as Hermione placed the pancakes on the table Hugo walked in.<p>

"Did Rose send a letter?" asked Hugo sleepily as he sat down and piled pancakes on to his plate

"She did, her letter is on top of the stack of mail, why don't you read it while I go and get ready for work."

Hermione left the kitchen and hurried back to her bedroom to finish getting ready for work. That afternoon she had a meeting with the other members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. A knock at her bedroom door surprised her and when the door opened she found Hugo standing there.

"What is it Hugo? You really should be getting ready for school."

"I'd thought that you'd like to read Rose's letter before going to work."

"Is she saying how she's so proud to be in Gryffindor with Albus?"

"Not exactly."

"Rose and Albus aren't in the same house then."

"Oh no, they're in the same house."

"Well then what house are they in dear or should I just read the letter myself."

"They're both in Slytherin."

"What!" Snatching the letter from her son, Hermione read her daughter's letter and sure enough both Rose and Albus had been sorted into Slytherin. _Ron would flip if he could see this, _Hermione thought as she read Rose's thoughts on what her father's view of her being in Slytherin would be.

"You're not mad at her are you mom?" Hugo asked timidly from the door

Hermione looked puzzled at her son, who she noticed looked nervous. Truth be told she had been hoping that Rose would be in Gryffindor or even Ravenclaw, never in a million years had she pictured her daughter in Slytherin; but if Albus was there as well then the hat must have had a reason for putting her in that house. She knew perfectly well that Ron would hate having Rose in Slytherin and would probably storm up to the castle himself just to put her in Gryffindor. However, Hermione found herself strangely fine with her daughter's house, she couldn't explain it, but part of her mind told her that it made perfect sense.

"No Hugo, I'm not mad with her, the hat placed her where she belongs and at least she isn't alone, she has Albus, now please finish getting for school Ginny should be here soon to pick you up."

After Hugo left the room, Hermione glanced back at the letter focusing on Rose's brief mention of her new friends in Slytherin house. Amongst the names of a few girls was one name that stood out Scorpius Malfoy, she hadn't realized that Malfoy had a son let alone was married; after the war the Malfoys had essentially dropped of the press radar and stayed that way. _Maybe that's who I saw yesterday, _thought Hermione, it made perfect sense, _but why was he walking back into the muggle world. _Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by Hugo shouting that Ginny and Lily had arrived, gabbing her bags she left her room without a second thought.

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><p>Arriving in her office, she placed her bags on her desk as she flipped through the memos that had shown up over night. Her door opened as her secretary stuck her head into her office.<p>

"Mr. Potter is here to talk to you Ms. Granger." said Amanda

"Thanks Amanda, he can come in." Hermione said as she read a few of the more important memos

"You don't think that I could ever get her to just call me Harry." said Harry as he sat down at a chair in front of Hermione's desk

"Not until I can get her to just call me Hermione, which I don't think will ever happen, did you need something before the meeting Harry?"

"First off I had want to say that Albus was worried how Rose was feeling being in Slytherin, I'm assuming she sent you a letter?"

"Yes she did and she mainly sounded nervous about what Ron would think other than that she seems to be enjoying herself so far, I just need to reassure her that it doesn't matter where she ended up when I write back to her later."

"Good, well then on to this meeting, it's just between my Department and your Department we need the Auror Office and the Investigation Department in constant communication on this mission unlike in the past."

"Harry, usually we don't inform you of what or who we are investigating until we have a strong lead, why would we need to now?"

"You'll understand at the meeting, oh and please don't kill me when you see who your partner is for this one."

"Why would I have a partner? I haven't actually done field work in five years I've stuck to tracking down leads or doing other things."

"That's why, you need a partner for the field work, please the rest will be explained at the meeting which we really should be going to right now."

Harry and Hermione walked down to the meeting room and Hermione was surprised to find the Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt sitting there as well as Frederick Meyer the head of the Hit Wizards section of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Nodding to both men Hermione sat down next to Harry and across from Frederick, which left the chair to her left open for the last person who was joining them.

"I believe we will start this meeting, the auror I asked to join us is running a little late this morning." said Kingsley "Now I know some of you are unaware of why we are gathered here so I will cut to the chase, over the last five years a series of underground wizard groups has been surfacing throughout England and Europe, it appears that the main group is located here in England and recently there has been an increase in dark magic."

"So you think that this is a neo-Death Eater group?" questioned Hermione wondering why her Department hadn't been involved in this investigation until now

"That is the assumption, Meyer has tried to get a member of his team on the inside but they proved too hard to even track down."

"Well why wasn't I briefed on this five years ago?"

"Because the groups weren't brought to our attention until you were injured on the raid of the meeting place in Durham, it took us this long just to confirm that the group who attacked you was connected to this neo-Death Eater movement, we've only recently been in contact with the other Ministries about the matter."

Hermione nodded and rubbed her hand over her left arm, while the scar from Bellatrix still resided on her arm, five years ago she had nearly lost the arm all together in the raid along with having the cruciatus curse used on her and very nearly lost her life. Had Harry not been there along with the rest of the auror team she might not have made it to St. Mungo's in time, after that she had sworn off field work all together which was just fine for her children who had been petrified at the thought of losing their mother.

"So what is our job then?" Hermione asked

"You and your partner are to work on locating the neo-Death Eater group that is located in England, any field work will be done by your partner and If you have a strong enough lead then Meyer's team of Hit Wizards will go in with Harry and some of our top aurors to arrest them." explained Kingsley

"And who is this mysterious partner that everyone keeps talking about?"

"That would be me Granger." came a sharp voice from the doorway

Hermione turned to face the speaker and was shock to find herself staring at Draco Malfoy, who was standing there with a smirk on his face.

"Seriously! Since when are you an auror?"

"I've been an auror for the last seven years." Draco answered as he sat in the chair next to Hermione, "I'm surprised your husband hasn't mentioned it."

"Ron's been dead for six years your information, you really should pay more attention, I've been using my maiden name for two years now."

"Really? I must have missed that announcement, he was missing last time I checked."

"Well you better check again because four years ago we held a funeral for him."

"Didn't you just say he died six years ago, why would you want a corpse lying around for two years."

"He went missing on an auror mission six years ago! He wasn't declared dead till two years later, got it Malfoy."

"Yes, I believe that brings me up to speed."

"Good, now if your done aggravating Hermione we can continue with this meeting." said Harry "And please don't be late again Draco."

"Sorry about that Potter, some of us have to deal with annoying lawyers and an ex-wife who think that it's a good idea to show up at eight in the morning to bother me, it took two hours just to get rid of them."

"Well that's all very unfortunate, but can we get back on topic." said Hermione now very annoyed

"Of course, essentially you and Draco have access to any records you need in order to track down this group, you'll both be looking at the records but as I mentioned, only Draco will be going out into the field." said Kingsley

"Sounds fine with me, when do we get started?" questioned Hermione

"As soon as possible, if you need anything come and see one of us directly, no one else is to know about what is happening, understood?"

Hermione voiced her understanding while Draco simply grunted in acknowledgement. Everyone at the table stood up to leave and Hermione grabbed onto Harry as he tried to walk past her.

"Why is Draco my partner?" She whispered sharply

"He's one of my best aurors, alright."

"He's arrogant, pig headed and is going to drive me insane, and don't you remember what he was like in school."

"He's not the same person, sure he may still be a little arrogant but he doesn't really insult me that much anymore, just now and then when we joke around, it'll be fine."

"I swear Harry if anything happens I will kill you."

Hermione stalked off to her office, leaving Harry hoping that nothing went wrong with this mission.

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><p>Arriving in her office, Hermione was surprised to find Draco sitting in her chair with his feet up on her desk.<p>

"And what do you think you are doing in my chair?" Hermione said harshly

"No need to be mad Granger we are going to have to be some what civil to each other when we work."

"What are you doing here Malfoy?"

"I figured I'd stop by and see when you wanted to get started on this mission."

"Lets meet tomorrow morning at eight; I need to finish up some things first."

"Fine by me Granger, nice kids by the way." Draco said while nodding to the picture that was on her desk

"Thanks." She said a little unsure of why he was mentioning them

Without saying another word Draco stood up from her desk and walked past her, leaving her office. Hermione shut the door and sat back down at her desk, looking at the picture Malfoy had been referring to; it was taken the year before and showed Rose and Hugo both in Quidditch gear and holding their brooms over their shoulders, both had big grins on their faces. _Maybe Harry is right, _thought Hermione; _Malfoy will have to work hard to prove it though._

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><p><strong>And there is the first chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you think. I have no idea how long the next chapter will take but trust me there will be more!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Enjoy the next chapter! Thank you to everyone who put this story on story alert.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
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><p>Hermione found herself lying in bed and wide awake at 5am the next morning. After responding to Rose's letter the night before she found her mind constantly thinking about the mission with Malfoy. While she did trust Harry it was still hard to see that Malfoy had changed, not that she had spoken to him that much since school. She was curious about his ex-wife though, she didn't remember ever hearing about a wedding. Glancing at the clock the neon letters glowed back at her showing that she had been laying there for an hour. Sighing loudly, she climbed out of bed to face the day.<p>

Arriving in the kitchen, Hermione was surprised to find Hugo already dressed and eating cereal.

"Mom, can you be a chaperone for a school trip we're going on next week?" asked Hugo while his mother went about getting her own breakfast

"Where's the trip to?"

"The Magical Zoo, we still need two more parents to come with us."

"I'll have to see how much I'll be working on this mission I was just assigned to first."

"You have a new mission?"

"Yes, I'm working with Draco Malfoy for Harry and Kingsley."

"So he's an auror?"

"Yes, why Hugo is something wrong?" Hermione had noticed a change in her son's voice; he seemed upset.

"So you'll have to do field work then." Hugo had stopped eating and was just staring at his bowl, avoiding looking at his mother

It dawned on Hermione why Hugo was sad; the though of possibly losing his mother a second time must be terrifying him. "No sweetie, Uncle Harry made sure that I won't be in the field, that is why I'm partnered with Draco, he will be the one going out into the field, not me."

"Okay." Hugo got up sulkily to put his bowl away

"Hugo I'm serious, I won't go into the field unless I'm the last person at the Ministry when they need people, got it?"

Hugo laughed at the idea of his mom being the only person at the Ministry "Got it."

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><p>Arriving at her office Hermione was surprised to find Draco already there and unlike last time he was sitting in a chair in front of her desk.<p>

"You're here early."

"What's with the tone of surprise Granger, can't believe I actually want to do work."

"No its not…it's just…well I thought you'd be having issues with this whole partnership thing."

"And you thought that I would voice them to you."

"The Malfoy I know would."

Draco studied Hermione from his position in front of her desk, she appeared sure of herself as if she was fully expecting him to call her a mudblood. "Well Granger having a son resulted in my attempt to turn over a new leaf."

"Your son has changed you?" Hermione really couldn't believe this now

"Slowly, I'm not saying I'm a reformed person why don't you just ask your daughter, it sounds like she's getting to know Scorpius."

"Or I could ask Albus."

"Right, I'm still in shock that Potter's kid is in Slytherin."

"And you're not wondering how my daughter got in?"

"Oh I'm wondering that too, but I guess if Saint Potter's kid can get in then anything can happen."

"Right then." Hermione was slightly unnerved by this new Malfoy, he had yet to insult her and while he was still annoying to a point; it definitely wasn't the same Malfoy she knew in school, "Have you found anything in those reports?"

" No there isn't anything useful in these reports, I believe the one with the locations of the dark magic activity is on your desk somewhere."

The pair spent the morning looking through reports upon reports. Hermione set up a map of the country on the wall and they placed dots where dark activities had been happening with some hopes that it would lead them somewhere. Glancing up at the clock Hermione was surprised to see that it was twelve thirty in the afternoon.

"I think its time for lunch." said Hermione as she tossed yet another report onto the growing pile on the floor with a sigh

"What, oh lunch, sounds good." Draco stood up and stretched, he had been so engrossed in a file that he hadn't even noticed the time.

"Do you just want to eat here at the ministry?" Hermione asked

"Sounds fine with me, we can go somewhere else another time."

They arrived in the cafeteria and split up to get food before sitting down at a table. As they ate Hermione began to get curious about this "new" Malfoy.

"So Malfoy, who exactly is this ex-wife of yours?"

Draco lifted an eyebrow as he looked at Hermione, "Astoria Greengrass, she was two years below us at school."

"And it didn't work out?"

"Well let's just say that when you come home from work and find your four year old son playing unsupervised in the family and then go looking for your wife who you find in your bed with some man things don't tend to work out."

"She was cheating on you with Scorpius in the house!"

"Yes and when I told him that mommy wouldn't be around much anymore, he asked if she was going to live with the man who stops by a lot."

"Oh my goodness that's horrible."

"It didn't take to long to get the divorce finalized but she has been haggling me ever since for more money and for the parental rights to Scorpius."

"Doesn't she come from a wealthy pureblood family? Why would she need more money?"

"Her father wasn't to pleased that she wasted her arranged marriage by cheating on me and cut her off, and it turns out that man she was with left her once she ran out of money so now she's bothering me for more."

"So she's just living on the streets then."

"Oh no, last I heard Pansy Parkinson is letting her live at her house probably so the two can gripe and complain about me."

"Wow Malfoy now you have two women who hate your guts."

"It's just this charm I have, Merlin forbid I might actually want to be happy with someone."

Hermione had opened her mouth to make a comment just to shut it, _Malfoy wasn't happy, _"What about Scorpius? I'm sure he makes you happy."

"He does don't get me wrong, but it would be nice to have a woman that I could also be happy with."

"Happy or in love?" As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them, Hermione wasn't even sure where the question came from

Draco was slightly taken a back by the question but was thankfully saved by Harry, who picked that moment to sit down at the table with his lunch.

"The two of you are eating a late lunch" said Harry before noticing the strange looks that Draco and Hermione were giving each other, "Did I interrupt something?"

"No!" both Hermione and Draco said rather quickly, "We were actually just leaving Harry." Said Hermione, "Yeah Potter, we still have a lot of work to get done." Draco added as they stood up from the table and left, leaving behind a very confused Harry

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><p>Later that night, Hermione arrived at the Potter's house to pick up Hugo. Walking inside she was greeted by the smell of Ginny's cooking.<p>

"Hi mom!" said Hugo as he rushed to hug his mother who was barley through the door, "Aunt Ginny is making us some food to take home."

"That's very nice of her, go get your school stuff together." Hermione watched as Hugo rushed upstairs in search of his school back before walking into the kitchen, "Thanks for watching Hugo, Ginny."

"It wasn't a problem Hermione, Lily likes having him here to play with her; so does it look like this is going to be a long mission?"

"Oh yes, we spent all day working and didn't make any progress."

"Then I'll just bring Hugo over here when I pick them up from school."

"That would be great Ginny and thanks for making us dinner."

"Well I couldn't let the two of you starve; you needed reminding in school to eat when you got into an assignment, so I figured this would be a good way for you to have food."

"I wasn't that bad in school."

"Whatever you say Hermione, do you think that you'll be able to chaperone the trip to the zoo next week?"

"I don't think so, unless we make a lot of headway within the next five days."

"Darn it, I was hoping you'd be there."

"Don't want to socialize with the other parents, huh."

"Not really."

The two women laughed as Lily and Hugo walked into the kitchen with Harry behind them. "What are you laughing at?" asked Harry

"Oh, just your wife's attempt to avoid talking to other parents."

"What?"

"She'd upset that I won't be there to talk with her at the zoo next week."

"You can't come with us mom?" asked Hugo

"It doesn't look like it right now, if something changes then I will be there but for now you're going to go home with Aunt Ginny after school, okay?"

"Okay, I'm already to go!"

Ginny handed Hermione the basket with the food before hugging her and Hugo goodbye. After saying goodbye to Harry and Lily; Hermione and Hugo flooed home.

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><p>Over the next few days Hermione and Draco made almost no progress. They map was full of dots and Draco had gone out to multiple locations looking for any sign that the group had been at a locations. When he would come back empty handed they placed an x over the dot. So far a lot of the dots had been crossed out and there were still more dots to go. That Tuesday afternoon Hermione found herself eating lunch alone in her office as Draco was out in the field. While looking over the reports of the wizards that were believed to be in the neo-Death Eater group, Hermione's office door was thrown open and bounced of the wall with a bang. Glancing up from her desk Hermione looked at the brown haired women now standing in the doorway.<p>

"Can I help you Ms?" asked Hermione trying to figure out who this women was

"Where is he!" the women shouted advancing into the office

"Where's who?" asked Hermione confused as to what this women was talking about

"Draco! He keeps saying that he's working but I know better, he's probably busy sleeping with you, you little slut." She yelled

Hermione stood up from her desk, slamming her hands on it causing things to fall over, "I am not a slut, you insolent women, Draco and I are partnered on an assignment."

"Well then where is he!"

"Out in the field, I have no idea when he'll get back."

"Oh that's bloody convenient, you tell him that I want the money he owes me or else I'm taking Scorpius, got it."

Before Hermione could respond a demanding voice came from the doorway, "Astoria what the hell are you doing here." Hermione looked past Astoria to see Draco standing in the doorway looking pissed. Astoria spun around to face her ex-husband before advancing on him.

"You still owe me 300,000 galleons, where is it?"

"I owe you no such amount, you got the last of your money five months ago it's not my fault if you've spent it all."

"You're supposed to send me that amount every four months and you know it and now you're a month late."

"Our lawyers changed the requirements of our divorce six months ago and I was only required to give you that last payment; it's not my fault that you agreed to it maybe if you didn't want to lose my money you shouldn't have cheated on me."

"Well maybe you should have been around more often, all you did was work and take care of Scorpius you hardly had any time for me."

"That's what a parent does! They work and take care of their kid and you did none of that."

"That's what house elves are for its how you and I were raised!"

"I won't have Scorpius end up like I was in school and that's that, you are not changing the terms we've set up for our divorce, go get a job or something and leave us alone! Draco literally grabbed Astoria and pushed her out of Hermione's office before slamming the door shut in her face and locking it.

"Was it necessary to lock the door?" Hermione asked from behind her desk where she was still standing

"I don't want her back in here, I'm sorry she even came here in the first place, hopefully she wasn't to mean to you."

"Oh you know, she just called me a slut and said that we were sleeping together."

Draco looked up at Hermione confused, she didn't look mad but the venom in her voice told a different story, "I'm surprised that Astoria was alive when I got here."

"She has no idea how lucky she is."

"Well hopefully she never comes back; we need to add another x to the map."

"Again? This mission is getting no where." Hermione fell back into her seat annoyed while Draco added the x to the map

"I did over hear some men talking in the bar about a guy, Tristan; they were talking about something he did a few days ago in New Castle."

Hermione started to flip through the files on her desk, "I don't think we have any reports from New Castle."

"What about this guy Tristan?"

"I haven't come across that name yet but I haven't finished going through those files."

"Hopefully his name is in there, otherwise our one break in this case many be hopeless."

Hours went by as they searched through more and more files for one name. They didn't realize the time until the lock clicked in the door and it flew open once again but this time is was Hugo who ran through with Harry behind him, "See Uncle Harry I told you they were still working." said Hugo as he sat down in between Draco and Hermione on the couch.

"Yeah well it was your Aunt who said otherwise not me." said Harry looking at Draco and Hermione who were both sitting on the couch with papers all around them

"And what else did Ginny think we were doing?" asked Hermione noticing how uncomfortable Harry got with the question

"Well you know the kinds of activities that require you to lock your office door for example." said Harry as his ears got a little red

"For your information Potter I locked the door to keep Astoria from barging in here again." said Malfoy

"And why would your ex-wife barge in here?"

"Because she wants more money and I locked it to keep her from coming back as she said some rather nasty things to Hermione."

"What kinds of things?" demanded Harry who was upset that someone would bad mouth his best friend

"The kinds of things that you do not repeat in front of kids." said Malfoy looking down at Hugo who still sat between him and Hermione

"I'm not a kid! Proclaimed Hugo who realized he was being talked about

"Oh really?" said Draco

"Yeah, I'm nine." Hugo said proudly

"Well my apologizes then I didn't realize that you were such a big boy." said Draco who found himself starting to simile at the young boy

"Mom I like him, who is he?" Hugo asked Hermione as he looked up at his mother, Draco and Harry both laughed a bit at Hugo's antics

"This is my partner Draco Malfoy." said Hermione smiling at her son

Hugo turned back to Draco and stuck out his hand, "I'm Hugo Weasley, are you going to date my mom?"

Hermione was mortified at what Hugo had just said while Harry was trying his hardest not to burst out laughing; before Hermione could say anything Draco had taken Hugo's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you Hugo, I'm Draco and right now I'm pretty sure that your mom and I will just stick to being work partners that okay?"

Hugo considered this response, "I guess so, but Aunt Ginny won't like that answer."

"She won't?" said Draco

"Nope, Aunt Ginny and Rose are trying to get mom to go on more dates so she'll probably try to get you to ask mom out." With this response from Hugo, Harry was close to tears from trying not to laugh while Hermione's face had turned such a bright red that it competed with Hugo's Weasley red hair

"Well then how about I'll deal with your Aunt when that happens."

"I guess that'll be fine, good luck though she's very good with jinxes and hexes."

"Trust me Hugo I think he knows that." said Harry as he grinned

"Yes I do." said Draco

"Mom are you ready to go home?" Hugo asked Hermione

"Yes, let's go, I'll see you in the morning Draco." Hermione said as she got up from the couch and gathered her things to go home, "Oh I may be running a little late, Hugo's field trip to the zoo is tomorrow and I want to make sure they get there okay."

"That's fine there isn't too much to do besides reading through files." said Draco as he stood from the couch, "What do you want to see at the zoo?" Draco asked Hugo

"I really want to see the Griffins! They're my second favorite magical animal, my first is dragons but the zoo doesn't have any so I see the ones that Uncle Charlie has when we visit." Hugo said excitingly

"Griffins are pretty cool but I am partial to dragons myself." said Draco as the small group walked out of Hermione's office

"Of course you are." said Hermione "Say good bye to Draco, Hugo maybe you'll see him again."

"Bye Draco keep an eye on my mom for me." said Hugo as he gave Draco a quick hug, the adults all stared at the young boy in shock and Hermione's eyes watered a bit. Once Hugo let go, Draco headed back to his own office while Harry, Hermione and Hugo left the ministry to go home.

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><p>Hermione was surprised to find Hugo sitting at the kitchen table with his school bag all packed the next morning. "All ready to go?" she asked as she looked through the bag to make sure he had everything<p>

"Yup! I have everything, can we go now?" Hugo asked in a hurry

"Where is your emergency coin?" Hermione asked, she had made Rose and Hugo emergency coins that worked the same way as the galleons she made for the DA

"Right here in my pocket." said Hugo pulling the coin out to show his mother before putting it back

"Good, now Aunt Ginny will be there so…"

"Stay near her, I got it mom I'm not a little boy."

"How could I forget you're nine."

"Exactly, now can we go?"

"I guess so."

Hermione dropped Hugo off at school and once she made sure that he was with Ginny and saw that they left with no problems she headed to work

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><p>By mid-morning all Draco and Hermione had found was that Tristan had grown up in an orphanage in England and while he had been offered a place at Hogwarts he turned it down and went to a smaller local wizard school.<p>

"Why is there hardly anything on this guy! Shouldn't there be OWL and NEWT results for him and where he works or lives." Draco said in frustration

"There should be, maybe we should go and check out the orphanage he grew up in maybe they'll be able to help us." said Hermione standing up from the couch

"Wait a second, we? You're supposed to stay here." Draco stated as he stood up as well

"We're just going to an orphanage Malfoy and what if you forget to ask a certain question, I'm going with you."

"No you're not, Potter will murder me if he finds out I've let you go with me."

"I'll deal with Harry if we finds out, now let's go." Hermione strolled out of the office before Draco could stop her, resulting in Draco running after her

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><p>"Well that was a waste of time." said Draco as they walked out of the orphanage, the women running the orphanage wasn't the same women who ran it when Tristan was there so she was of no help<p>

"At least we tried." said Hermione distracted as she dug through her purse looking for something

"Want to get lunch since we're out? Granger, Granger, Hermione what's wrong? Draco had turned to face Hermione and found her staring at something in her hand, her face pale

She shakily looked up a Draco, fear in her eyes, "Something's wrong with Hugo." she whispered

"What! What do you mean something's wrong?"

"He sent me a message with his emergency coin, it…it says…it says there's an attack."

"At the zoo?" Hermione could only nod in response, "Hermione, I'll go there, you go back to the ministry and get Harry, I'll get Hugo, okay."

"No, No I'm going with you Draco."

"Hermione it's too dangerous, Harry would want you to go back to the ministry."

"I don't care it's my son and I'm going."

Draco could see how determined she was and decided against forcing her to stay behind, "Alright but I'll apparate us though as I'd rather not end up being splinched." Draco grabbed Hermione's hand and apparated them to the magical zoo.

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><p>Arriving at the zoo Draco and Hermione were greeted to the sight of wizards running all over the place and a few burning buildings. Rather quickly Hermione spotted a flash of red hair, "Ginny!" she called<p>

Spinning around Ginny spotted them and ran in their direction, "What are you doing here?"

"Hugo sent me a message with his coin, where is he?"

"Hermione I honestly haven't seen him since this all happened, I've spent the last few minutes trying to find him."

Draco watched as Hermione's face fell and her eyes watered, "What is going on?" he asked Ginny

"All of a sudden these wizards apparated all around us and started shooting spells, I sent Harry a patronus and there are aurors here now but they're still dueling the other wizards in the building." Just as she finished saying this a series of spells flew through an opening in the building and Draco pulled the two women out of the way

"Hermione I'll go into the building and find Hugo, you stay here with Ginny."

"Draco I am going to find my son, I'll be fine I am one of the top duelers in the ministry."

Draco knew that she was right and it would be foolish of him to run in the building without any backup, "Fine but stay close."

The pair ran into the building and past the mainly empty paddocks of animals. "Where would he be?" asked Draco as they went past another deserted hallway

"I have no idea, he was probably looking at some animals when it happened but that doesn't really help us." said Hermione as she frantically looked around for any trace of red hair

"Actually it does, we need to go this way." Draco said suddenly sounding very sure of himself as he took off down a hall, Hermione right behind him, "Where are going?" she asked, "The Griffin Arena." said Draco

They reached the arena and Draco slowly pushed open the door to look inside, seeing nothing he gestured for Hermione to go in before he entered. Hermione walked along the one wall, keeping an eye on the griffins that were still in the arena, "Are the griffins acting strange?" she asked Draco having noticed that the two griffins were standing in front of a circle of rocks not moving towards them

"May be, I don't know much about griffins." said Draco keeping an eye out for anything

"Oh my goodness, Draco Hugo is on the other side of the griffins!

"What!" Draco snapped his head around and stared at the area behind the griffins, sure enough there was Hugo sitting on the ground with his legs pulled up scared

Hermione advanced on the griffins that moved to the side allowing her to move towards Hugo. She was half way towards him when Draco shouted, "Hermione look out!" she raised a shield just in time as a stunning spell zoomed towards her. Running the rest of the distance to Hugo, Draco started sending spells at the black robed wizards that had just entered. Harry and three aurors entered the arena behind Draco and they assisted him in the duel. "Hermione run back over here with Hugo!" Draco shouted over the spells. Grabbing Hugo Hermione made a mad dash with Hugo running slightly in front of her. The griffins had taken to the air and were circling over head. Just as Hugo reached his uncle he turned around to look for his mother, "Mom!" he shouted as he watched a streak of blue light hit his mother, Hermione screamed as she saw the terrified look on Hugo's face before falling into unconsciousness.

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><p><strong>Please leave a review! I know people are reading this story but I want to know what you think! The next chapter may take a while longer to get up than this one.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Yes I'm finally back! I'm done with school so updates should be more frequently (fingers crossed). Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and added this story to their alerts. This chapter is a little shorter than the others, its more of a filler chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>"When is my mom going to wake up? Hermione heard Hugo ask<p>

"The healers say that she should wake up any time now." Came Draco's voice

"So that means?"

"That we just need to wait for her to wake up."

"Do you think that she knows that we're waiting for her?

"I'm sure she knows, Your Uncle Harry is standing in the hall I'm going to go out and talk to him, stay right here okay?"

"Okay."

Hermione heard movement as Draco stood up from the chair he had been sitting in followed by the opening and closing of the door. The side of the bed shifted a bit before she heard Hugo's voice again.

"Mom can you hear me? I'm sorry for not staying near Aunt Ginny, I just wanted to see the griffins one last time, please wake up soon; Rose is really worried, Uncle Harry brought her to visit the other day since it was a Saturday and she didn't have class, Albus and Scorpius have been trying to keep her happy but it isn't working at all so you need to wake up mom."

Hermione felt tears form in the corner of her eyes which she so desperately wished would open; Hugo seemed to notice the tears.

"Mom don't cry, I've been fine a little scared but fine, I've been staying with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny but Draco visits everyday after work and has dinner with us to make sure I'm okay."

Hermione smiled and all of a sudden she found it very easy to open her eyes to see Hugo perched on the side of the hospital be staring at her

"Mom you're awake!" Hugo shouted launching himself at his mother to give her a hug

In response to Hugo's shout the door to the room burst open as Harry and Draco ran inside to see Hermione, now sitting up in bed hugging Hugo. Harry ran out of the room to find a healer while Draco walked over and sat in one of the chairs next to the bed.

"Nice to see you awake Granger." said Draco

"How long have I been here?" Hermione asked as she let go of Hugo and sat back into the pillows of her bed

"You've been here for around four days I'd say, Potter brought your daughter to see you the other day." said Draco

"I remember hearing Hugo say that; how is Rose?"

"I didn't talk to her but she seemed very upset, Scorpius mentioned in a letter that he and Albus haven't been able to get her to cheer up."

"I'll need to write to her right away then maybe that will cheer her up."

"Oh I'm sure Potter could get her out of school for a bit again."

"She should be focusing on her studies Malfoy not leaving school just because her war hero uncle can get her out."

"Ah but this war heroine seems to have forgotten that she is probably McGonagall's favorite student of all time so I don't think she's have an issue letting your daughter see you for a night or something."

"Of course I'd go get Rose, Hermione." Harry said as he walked back into the room having heard their conversation

"Harry…" Hermione started but was cut off by Harry

"Hermione it was no trouble for her to come and see you the other day so there will be no problem bringing her to see you, I'll even take her out this weekend so she doesn't miss any class." Harry said

"Fine, but if she falls behind in her studies I will blame you."

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you Hermione, your healer should be here soon then we can see when you can go home."

"Good, mom I love Lily but I'm tired of playing with her dolls and I miss sleeping in my own bed." Hugo said from his place next to his mother, causing Hermione to laugh slightly

There was a knock on the door as it swung open revealing Hermione's healer, "Hello Hermione, I'm glad to see that you're awake, I'm Healer Smith." said Healer Smith as she walked up to the bed and shook Hermione's hand

"So when can I go home? Hermione asked Healer Smith

"Today, as long as I see no side effects of the spell that hit you, we're not sure what the spell was but it essentially drained you magic causing you pass out." said Smith while preforming the diagnostic spells on Hermione, "There appear to be no side effects but refrain from using large amounts of magic for the next few days just to be on the safe side."

"Alright, thank you." said Hermione

"You're welcome, I'll go get the release forms while you change, and I believe your friends brought you clothes." said Smith looking at Harry and Draco for a confirmation that they had indeed brought Hermione clothes

"I did, Ginny packed you some clothes and put them in this bag." Harry said while pointing to the bag that was on the floor next to the chairs

"Good, get changed and I'll be back with the forms." Smith said before leaving the room to get the realize forms. Harry, Draco, and Hugo left the room so that Hermione could change before signing the realize forms and leaving the hospital.

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><p>Hermione, Harry and Hugo returned to the Potter's House to retrieve Hugo's things; they said good bye to Draco at the hospital after saying that he'd see Hermione at work the next day. Walking out of the fire place at the Potter's, Hermione was immediately pulled into a bone crushing hug by Ginny.<p>

"Hermione I'm so glad that you are alright!" Ginny said hugging Hermione even tighter

"Ginny, I'm glad to see you too but it's a little hard to breathe right now." said Hermione trying to breathe in Ginny's bone crushing hug

"Oh, right sorry I'm just very happy to see you." Ginny was distant in her answer, seeming to want to say more but not with Hugo in the room

"Hugo, why don't you go play with Lily while I talk to your Uncle and Aunt." Hermione said to Hugo who slowly made his way upstairs to find his cousin, "Ginny what's wrong?" Hermione asked once Hugo was out of ear shot

"Oh Hermione, I was so scared when Harry came out carrying you and Draco had Hugo. You looked like you were dead." Ginny chocked out around the tears that were streaming down her face

"Ginny I'm fine, my magic was just drained but I'm fine." Hermione pulled Ginny into a comforting hug with these words while she stroked her back.

"I was just so happy to hear that you were awake, are you taking a few days off from work?"

"No I'm going back tomorrow."

"What! Harry you can't let her do that, she should rest for a few days at least." Ginny yelled

"Ginny calm down, Hermione is fine she just needs to watch how much magic she uses for the next few days." said Harry trying to calm down his wife

"I don't care, she should rest!"

"And do what Ginny; I'll be too busy thinking about this case anyways, it just makes more sense for me to go into work." Hermione explained

"Fine but you're coming over to dinner tomorrow night.' said Ginny

"Alright Hugo and I will come over for dinner tomorrow." Hermione reasoned with Ginny, "Harry, what do you know about those wizards who attacked the zoo?" Hermione asked Harry

"The wizards we caught haven't given over to much information yet, you and Draco will be able to interrogate them tomorrow hopefully that works, but Draco has asked some other aurors to keep an eye or ear out for this Tristan guy he heard about." said Harry, "Oh and I told Draco that if he lets you in the field again it better be because you knocked him unconscious or something."

"My son was in trouble Harry, are you telling me that you would have sat back knowing that one of your kids was in trouble while leaving someone else to go and help them."

"Not at all but you had orders to stay out of the field."

"I'm a fully capable auror, it was my decision to stay out of the field and there is nothing keeping me from changing my mind."

"I know it was your decision but Draco had orders to keep you from going into the field, I'm just looking out for you Hermione, I don't want to have to tell Rose and Hugo that you're not coming home like I had to do with Ron." Harry chocked out the last part

"Harry you aren't going to have to do that again, I promise that I'll be careful if I ever do go out into the field again." Hermione pulled Harry into a hug to reassure him

There was a scuffle at the door as the adults heard a whispered conversation that wasn't very quiet at all. Ginny stood up and opened the kitchen door to reveal Lily and Hugo, "Can we help you two?" Ginny asked

"Are we ready to go home?" Hugo asked Hermione running over to his mother

"Sure we are honey, you have all your stuff?" Hermione asked her son

"Yup!" Hugo said holding up his packed bag

"We'll see you both tomorrow." Hermione said to Harry and Ginny as she and Hugo said good bye to them before leaving

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><p>Later that night Hermione woke up to hear her bedroom door creaking as it was slowly opened by her son, "Hugo are you alright?" Hermione asked groggily, sitting up in bed a bit to observe her son who was standing in the doorway<p>

"I couldn't sleep; can I stay in here with you?" Hugo asked

Hermione found this request odd especially for her son since he was coming up on his tenth birthday, "Sure honey." Hermione pulled the sheets back more on the other side of her bed for Hugo to crawl into, even after sleeping alone in the bed for years now Hermione still kept to one side of the bed, "What's wrong?" Hermione asked Hugo once he got settled in the bed

"I just had a nightmare." mumbled Hugo

"About me being hurt?"

"I just remembered when Uncle Harry came back from that mission five years ago and told us that you had been hurt, we could tell he had been crying and then Aunt Ginny and Rose and I started to cry, we couldn't see you for a few days. This whole thing just made me remember it."

Hermione hugged Hugo, noticing that he had start to cry, "Oh honey, I'm okay this was nothing like last time."

"I know but it just made me remember; are you actually going to stay in the office now?"

"Yes I will, unless Uncle Harry gives me permission."

"Good." said Hugo snuggling into Hermione and falling asleep, Hermione falling asleep not to long after

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><p>The next morning Hermione walked into her office to find Draco sitting behind her desk, "And what exactly are you doing behind my desk?" Hermione asked as she set her bags down next to her desk<p>

"I'm doing work what does it look like." responded Draco not looking up from the papers he was reading

"Don't we need to interrogate the wizards that were caught?" Hermione asked, looking over Draco's shoulder at the papers he was working on

"We do, I was just waiting for you to get here before I went to interrogate them."

"You are going to do it?"

"Yes, Harry gave me permission to use whatever means necessary to get them to talk."

"Oh, maybe I'll just stay here then." Hermione's voice was full of nervousness

Draco looked up at Hermione and watched as she rubbed her left arm; her eyes sum what vacant, "Hermione I'm not going to torture them."

How can you say that! Of course you're going to torture them; I have no idea what Harry's thinking."

"Do you really think I'm like my crazed aunt!"

"I'm sure she taught you tons of dark magic."

"So did my father but that doesn't mean that I would use it, do you really see me as the same person as my father?"

"I don't know, but I won't watch you interrogate those wizards!"

"Fine you don't have to, I'll be back once I know who sent them." Draco stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him; Hermione slowly sat in her chair staring blankly at the auror papers that Draco had been looking at, about Ron's disappearance six years ago

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><p><strong>Yes I am leaving you with an interesting little cliff hangerdevelopment. Hopefully the next chapter will be up in a few weeks. Please leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello Everyone! Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter! Maybe this one can get even more than 4? This chapter is a little shorter but I wanted Christmas to have its own chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>Hermione stared down at the papers, <em>Why on earth is Draco looking at this?<em> she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on her door. Looking up from her desk, Hermione found Harry standing in the doorway looking worried.

"I just saw Draco and he looked angry, did something happen?" asked Harry walking into her office

"Harry how could you let him interrogate those wizards? He's going to torture them!"

"Hermione he isn't going to torture them, that would go against ministry policy."

"But its Malfoy we're talking about, ministry policy is beneath him."

"I have aurors watching the interrogation; even if he wanted to torture the wizards the aurors would stop him."

"Well I still think you're wrong, do you even know why he's looking at the auror report on Ron?" Hermione gestured at the papers on her desk

Harry raised an eyebrow before answering, "Draco was with Ron and a few other aurors on that mission."

"But why look at the files six years later?"

"Maybe he remembered something, I'll ask him."

"Harry do you think that Ron could be alive?" Hermione's voice had gone quiet

Harry stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, "It's been six years, and if he was alive he would have come home by now."

"I know but still, why else would Malfoy be looking at the file?"

"I don't know Hermione."

"Well I hate to interrupt what looks like a touching moment, but Granger and I have a lead that we need to look into Potter." came Draco's voice from the doorway

Hermione glared at Malfoy as she let go of Harry, "You really couldn't have picked a better time to barge in." she snapped at Malfoy

"I thought it looked like a perfect time, now if you don't mind we do need to get back to work." Draco walked over and sat himself down of the couch without a glance at Hermione or Harry to sort through the papers he had been carrying.

Harry glanced over at Hermione before clearing his throat; "Um Draco can I talk to you really quick, outside?"

"Sure Potter." Draco stood up from the couch and followed Harry out of the office leaving Hermione alone as they shut the door.

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><p>Once Draco shut the door behind him, Harry pulled hall down the hall a bit.<p>

"Why are you looking at the files about Ron's disappearance?" asked Harry in a whisper

"Because I didn't believe Granger when she said that Weasley had disappeared on that mission." Draco snapped back

"You were there, and the other aurors never reported any strange activity but Ron just vanished, they never found a body."

"Harry I was stuck with him the night before we left to go back to England."

"Why didn't you mention this six years ago?"

"Because that night Ron mentioned that he was so happy that he'd be going home to his wife and kid the next day, I just figured that he took his time getting back."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, it's why I never reported anything, and you know that I don't care to read the prophet so I never knew that he was reported dead."

"Wait you said that Ron was looking forward to seeing his wife and kid?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Ron has two kids with Hermione remember? Rose and Hugo."

"Had Hugo been born yet?"

"He was three when Ron went missing."

"Oh, then why did Ron say that?"

"Well we would need Ron to find that out wouldn't we? You don't think this is connected to this Tristan guy do you?"

"We still need to find out where Tristan is from first."

"Then you better get back in there and figure it out before I tell Hermione that there is a chance that Ron is still out there."

"Got it." Draco turned and headed back towards Hermione's office before Harry shouted after him.

"Draco I almost forgot to tell you, Ginny has invited you to dinner tonight, Hermione and Hugo will be there too."

"I'm not going to get out of this am I?"

"No, I'm pretty sure Ginny would drag you out of your house if you didn't show."

"Then I'll see you at six." said Draco as he walked back into Hermione's office, shutting the door behind him missing the smile on Harry's face

* * *

><p>Hermione was on the couch looking at the papers that Draco has brought back after interrogating the wizard when Draco walked back into the office.<p>

"This is all he told you?" asked Hermione as Draco joined her on the couch

"This is more than Harry got out of him, so yes." answered Draco

"What use is this? All it tells use is where he's been for the last few months, what was the point of finding that out?"

"I wanted to know where he met Tristan in order to work on finding him."

"Oh right, so we're going to have to narrow down these countries then."

"Looks like it."

"What fun."

The pair spent the rest of the day reading the papers and sorting out which countries they needed to look at. By the time five o'clock rolled around they had narrowed it down to: Norway, Finland, Romania, Ukraine, and Poland.

"These countries make no sense!" exclaimed Hermione "Sure three share a border but still they're so random."

"Granger if it made sense then our job would be much easier."

"Well let's work on this tomorrow, we need to be at Harry's in an hour and I'd rather not show up in my work robes."

"Bringing a date Granger?"

"No, but after Ginny surprised me one time by having a man meet me at the house, I'm always expecting something."

"I thought Hugo was just joking when he said that Ginny and Rose have been pairing you up on dates."

"Oh no, he wasn't"

"So Ginny is really that desperate to find you a new husband?"

"She just wants me to be happy."

"Still, trying to set you up on dates seems like pushing it."

"She means well, I'm going to head home and get ready, I'll see you there?"

"Yes, I'll see you at Potter's."

The two put away their papers and left the office.

* * *

><p>Hermione arrived at the Potter's at exactly six o'clock to find Hugo and Lily playing in the living room where Harry and Draco were sitting and talking. She said hello to them to them before going into the kitchen to see if Ginny needed a hand.<p>

"Hello Ginny." said Hermione joining Ginny in the kitchen

"Hi Hermione, how was work?" asked Ginny while she pulled the roast out of the oven

"Very busy, thank you for bringing Hugo here after school."

"No problem, it made perfect sense since the two of you were coming for dinner."

"So let me guess, I'm going to be sitting next to Draco at dinner?"

"Of course, you two do work together."

"Oh come on Ginny I know that you have to be planning something."

"Hermione I have no idea what you are talking about, now please take the roast out to the table, I'll bring out everything else."

Hermione rolled her eyes at her friend before grabbing the plate of roast and heading out to the dining room to put it on the table. She was shortly joined by Harry, Draco, Hugo and Lily. They all sat down and waited for Ginny to bring the remaining plates out. Sure enough Hermione was sitting in between Draco and Hugo, Ginny was across from her with Lily across from Hugo and Harry was at the head of the table Ginny to his one side and Draco on the other.

"So Draco, how's Scorpius? Ginny asked as everyone started to eat

"He's doing well; his favorite classes seem to be Potions and Transfiguration."

"That's nice; you know Albus wants us to invite him to join us for Christmas." said Ginny

"Really?"

"Yes, I did tell Albus that it would depend on what Scorpius was doing for Christmas."

"We usually spend the day with my mother and her sister Andromeda but I'm sure that we could stop by for a bit."

"You could just come here to visit Andromeda, she comes here with Teddy probably before she visits with your mother." said Harry

"I'll see what my mother wants to do before I say yes, but I'm sure she will have no issues with coming here instead." said Draco

"It'll be fun, Hermione, Rose and Hugo join us as well." said Ginny smiling at Hermione from across the table. Hermione raised an eye at Ginny, _So this is what she is planning, trying to get the two of us in the same room with Rose present to try and push Draco and I together, _Hermione thought.

"You do?" Draco asked Hermione

"Yes, we can't always visit my parents in Australia, and we all go to Molly's house the night before for a big dinner; so we come over here for Christmas Day, sometime around lunch." answered Hermione

"Maybe Scorpius and I will join you for Christmas then."

"Me personally or here at Harry's?"

"Whichever you want."

"You should come to our house Draco!" exclaimed Hugo, deciding to join in on the adults conversation

"I should?" Draco asked Hugo

"Yeah, it'll be fun, you can help mom hand out gifts!" exclaimed Hugo

Harry, Ginny and Hermione exchanged a glance at Hugo's statement. Ron had been the one to hand out presents before his disappearance; not that Hugo had been old enough to remember it.

"Your mom needs help handing out gifts?" Draco asked Hugo confused as to why this would be important to him

"Yeah she's always done it alone, unlike Aunt Ginny who has Uncle Harry to help her." explained Hugo like this made perfect sense

Draco froze; he had realized what Hugo was getting at although he wasn't sure if Hugo even knew. He may be nine now but many things had been one way in Hugo's life since he was three; like Hermione not having Ron to help with presents. Draco glanced over at Hermione for a little help; he wasn't sure how to answer.

"Hugo, we'll just see Draco when we come over to Harry's." said Hermione

"But mom…"

"Don't worry buddy you'll still see me and you can meet Scorpius." Draco reassured Hugo

"Fine." said Hugo

The adults went back to their conversations which Hugo had no interesting in joining and soon dessert was brought out and eaten. Once dessert was over Hugo and Lily went up to Lily's room, Hermione helped Ginny clean up, while Harry took Draco up to his study.

"Any luck finding Tristan today?" Harry asked Draco as he poured him a drink in his study

"We narrowed down a few countries that this wizard could have run into him in; we still need to look into each one." Draco answered

"Where are you going to look first?"

"Finland."

"Any particular reason?"

"Don't you remember, that's where Ron disappeared."

"So you're still looking for a connection between the two?"

"Yes, Harry aren't you the least bit curious what happened to Ron?"

"Well yes, but I've come to accept that he died."

"Then at least let me find his body if you think he's dead, maybe this Tristan guy is the one that 'killed' him."

"Fine but try to keep it from Hermione, research Tristan with her but do everything else behind her back, got it?"

"Got it."

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><p><strong>I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review with your thoughts! It will probably be a few weeks until the next chapter. <strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello Everyone! Thanks for the review on the last chapter. Hopefully I'll get more reviews on this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.  
><strong>

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><p>A few days later Hermione found herself standing on the platform with the Potters and Hugo, waiting for the train to arrive.<p>

"Mom, will the train be here soon." Hugo wined

"It will be here soon, so please stop winning." said Hermione

"But I miss Rose!"

"Why? I don't miss James or Albus." Lily said from next to Hugo

"Lily! Don't say that about your brothers." said Ginny

"But mom the house has been quiet for the last three and a half months, you can't tell me that you're going to like having it full of craziness again." said Lily, Harry started to smirk behind his wife at his daughter's antics

"That doesn't mean that you can talk like that about your brothers." scolded Ginny as she ignored her now laughing husband

Hermione shook her head and turned to look down the platform where she spotted Draco standing. He had looked in her direction at that time and smiled as they caught each other's eye. The next thing she knew the train was pulling into the station and as soon as it stopped students began to disembark. She scanned the crowds of students for her daughter's red curly hair and finally spotted it alongside a blond haired boy and Albus' black unruly hair. The blond haired boy split from Rose and Albus before the two cousins headed over to their parents.

"Mom!" Rose shouted as she threw herself at Hermione, "I missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too sweetie, I'm sure you have loads of stories for us." said Hermione

"Oh yes, Al, Scorpius and I have done a lot and I've been studying too so don't worry about that but I can't wait to tell you about Slytherin; it's so different from when you were school, although Fred and Roxanne don't seem to understand that, James didn't listen to them though so he kept them from pranking us and…"

"Rose why don't take a breath." Hermione said interrupting her daughter

"What do you mean Fred and Roxanne don't understand that Slytherin House has changed?" asked Ginny, having overhead Rose

"Well they said that we were a disgrace to the family since we weren't in Gryffindor." explained Albus

"Did they forget that Victoire and Dominique are in Ravenclaw?" Harry asked

"I pointed that out to them and they said that Slytherin was different." said James

"I'll bring it up to George if they keep it up." Ginny declared leaving no room for an argument

The kids nodded and Rose reached out to grab someone as they walked by; it turned out to be the blond haired boy.

"Mom, this is my friend Scorpius Malfoy." Rose said in a determined way, wanting her mom to accept her friend

"Hello Scorpius." said Hermione, shaking the hand that Scorpius had held out, "Your father has told me a lot about you."

"You know his father!" exclaimed Rose, shocked

"Yes, I could have sworn that I mentioned it to you, Draco and I are partners at work right now." said Hermione, "Speaking of which, where is he?" she asked Scorpius

"My mother showed up, so he's trying to get her to leave." mumbled Scorpius embarrassed

"Oh dear, well he must have succeeded because here he comes now." Hermione said as she gestured at Draco as he made his way over to the group

"Hi Draco!" shouted Hugo

"Hello Hugo." said Draco with a smile, "Hello everyone else." He said with a wave to include the rest of the large group, "Scorpius its time to go." Draco told his son

"But dad…" Scorpius wined

"Don't worry I'm sure you'll be seeing your friends soon enough." said Draco

"Really!" Scorpius asked excitingly

"Yes, we've been invited over to the Potters for dinner tomorrow night, we'll see them then."

"Okay, bye!" Scorpius waved goodbye to his friends as he and Draco walked towards the line for the fireplaces

"Since when do you have dinner with Scorpius' dad?" asked Rose looking curiously at her mother

"I'll explain it to you later, let's head home before traffic gets bad, I drove here today." said Hermione

Since Harry had also drove, the group made their way back to the barrier and towards the cars.

* * *

><p>"So mom since when do you spend time with Mr. Malfoy?" Rose asked Hermione once she had put her trunk up in her room and came back into the family room<p>

"Since we have been working together, the day after you left for school." replied Hermione looking up from the book she was reading

"It's just work related then?" Rose asked, slightly put out

"What's just work related honey?" Hermione asked, knowing where this would lead

"Your relationship with Mr. Malfoy of course!"

"Rose I think you need to spend less time with your Aunt."

"Which one?" Rose asked with a smirk

"Ginny of course, she's the one who's invited Draco to these dinners."

"Of course she would, has he met the rest of the family?"

"No, why would he have?"

"No reason, so we're going to Uncle Harry's for dinner tomorrow?"

"Yes, I figured that you'd like a nice dinner at home tonight, what would you like for dinner?"

"Pot roast is fine, seeing as I can already smell it."

"It's good to know that I still know your favorite meal then, it should be done in a few minutes."

Hermione stood and headed into the kitchen with a smile on her face, "Get your brother will you Rose, I'll set the table." she asked from the kitchen

"Sure thing mom!" Rose ran upstairs shouting for Hugo and soon the two ran back downstairs into the kitchen

* * *

><p>Later that night, Hermione noticed Rose's bedroom light on as she was heading to bed. She knocked lightly on the door before walking in. Rose looked up from where she was sitting on her bed reading.<p>

"What's up mom? Rose asked

"I just want to remind you that your light should have been out an hour ago." said Hermione

"Oh sorry, I was really into this book."

"It's okay I've done that too, I'm surprised you didn't end up in Ravenclaw." Hermione said as she sat at the edge of Rose's bed.

"The hat did consider putting me in Ravenclaw it was between that and Slytherin, it didn't even consider Gryffindor." Rose sounded slightly distressed

"Well I think that it made the right choice."

"Really? Both you and dad were in Gryffindor, I had thought that you would want me to be there."

"Well I did when you were younger, looking back though it does make sense; you always were cunning enough to avoid getting caught when you pulled pranks or did anything else around the rest of the family."

"Yeah you never let me get away with anything."

"I am your mother, you may be cunning but you could never get past me."

"So you're really not mad that I'm in Slytherin?"

"No I'm not, the rest of the family may take longer to come around to the idea but don't worry Harry, Ginny and I have both your back and Albus'."

"Thanks mom." Rose said as she hugged her mom

"You're welcome honey, now turn off the light and go to bed; you can finish the book in the morning."

Hermione got up from the bed and left Rose's room as the light was turned off and headed to her bedroom.

* * *

><p>After dropping the kids off at Ginny's, Hermione headed into work. Arriving at her office she was surprised to find it empty. Seeing no note from Draco explaining his absence, she started to look through the records that they had received from the Finnish Auror Department. Around lunch the door to her office opened to reveal Harry.<p>

"Want to get lunch?" Harry asked

"Sure, you wouldn't happen to know where Draco is do you?" Hermione asked as she followed Harry out of her office and locked the door

"He isn't here today?" Harry asked surprised

"I'll take that as a no then."

"I'll contact him after lunch."

"Thanks, how is it having James and Albus home?" Hermione asked as they sat down at a table with their food

"I'm starting to agree with Lily, the house is really loud again and it's only been a day, is Rose glad to be home?"

"She is, she seemed a little worried about the whole Slytherin thing but I assured her that we had both her back and Albus' when we see the rest of the family."

"Albus brought up that worry but it didn't seem to bother him too much."

"Well Christmas Day will certainly be interesting."

They finished their lunches and headed back to their offices. Harry assured Hermione that he'd tried to get in contact with Draco and he'd let her know when he heard something.

A few hours later Harry poked his head into Hermione's office, "Draco says that he's sorry he didn't send you a letter, he got ambushed by Astoria and her lawyer and has just gotten rid of them." said Harry

"That's alright, I'm just about done here anyways, is he still coming to dinner tonight?"

"He is, why?"

"Rose is looking forward to seeing Scorpius." Hermione answered without looking at Harry

"Right, I'll see you later then." Harry said with a small smirk

"Alright."

Harry left the office while Hermione finished up sorting the Auror reports before heading out.

* * *

><p>Hermione went straight over to the Potters as both Rose and Hugo were still there. Walking out of the fire place, she found Ginny rushing about in the kitchen.<p>

"Need any help Ginny?" Hermione asked

"No, no I'm okay…actually wait, can you take these plates and then tell everyone that dinner is ready, they should all be in the living room." said Ginny

"Sure thing Ginny."

Hermione took the plates and set them in the dining room before looking for everyone. She found Harry and Draco sitting and talking in the living room with James, Scorpius, Albus and Rose.

"Dinner is ready." Hermione announced, "Where are Lily and Hugo?"

"They're upstairs, I'll get them Hermione." Harry said as he stood up

The kids, Hermione and Draco headed into the dining room while Harry went upstairs to get Hugo and Lily. Once Harry, Hugo and Lily arrived in the dining room they began to eat.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to work today." Draco said to Hermione

"It's okay, Harry said that you got held up." Hermione said, Scorpius chuckled a bit

Draco shot his son a look before responding, "Yeah, she felt that since Scorpius was home that it would be a good time to show up again with her lawyer."

"It was kind of amusing that she thought that I would want to see her." Scorpius said

"Scorpius." Draco warned

"Dad, Rose and Albus know that I don't like her."

"I don't care."

"Fine." he mumbled

"I'll be in tomorrow, don't worry." Draco said to Hermione

"Okay, don't worry about today, I just went through the auror files from Finland." Hermione told Draco

"You're not really going to talk about work right now, are you?" Rose asked her mother in disbelief

"No, we're done talking about work, Scorpius how'd you enjoy school?" Hermione asked Scorpius

"I had a lot of fun! I really liked potions and charms." Scorpius answered excitingly

"That's very good." said Hermione, "Rose mentioned you quite a bit in her letters, it sounded like you, she and Albus made quite the trio."

"Oh we did Aunt Hermione!" piped in Albus

"Yeah!" agreed Scorpius

"Don't worry dad, we didn't do anything like you, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron did." said Albus

"I hope not." said Harry

"Yes, the stuff you lot got into is something that should never happen ever again." said Draco

"I agree." said Hermione

"But your stories are always so cool!" exclaimed James

"Maybe the ones that actually involve pranks or other less dangerous activities." said Harry

"There's more?" asked James excitingly

"Which you won't find out about for a few years." Ginny said threateningly, giving Harry, Hermione and Draco a look like she would kill them if they continued this conversation

"But mom…" James wined

"No means no." said Ginny

"Fine." James mumbled

"So Mr. Malfoy are you seeing anyone?" asked Rose out of the blue

"Rose!" shouted Hermione, shocked that her daughter would ask something like that

"As a matter a fact I'm not." Draco answered laughing at Hermione's out burst

"So when are you going to go out with my mom?" Rose asked again, ignoring her mother who was now sputtering

"I haven't asked her yet." said Draco, deciding to play along

"Well you should! And soon before someone else does." Rose said matter-of-factly

"Oh really? Your mom has lines of suitors? asked Draco, as Hermione blushed

"Well no but they do seem to come out of the wood work around the holidays."

"So all the crazies come out?"

"Some of them are pretty crazy." agreed Rose

"Well don't worry; I'll be over for Christmas."

" Really? At our house?" Rose asked excitedly

"No, not at your house, Scorpius and I will join your family here." explained Draco

"Oh, why can't you come to my house?"

"Because Draco and I agreed that he would meet us here and that is final." declared Hermione, having finally joined the conversation while the rest of the family was trying not to laugh at the whole thing

"Fine, but I don't see why." Rose said, just daring Hermione to see her way

"Which is why I'm the parent." Hermione snapped

"Does anyone want dessert?" Ginny asked as Rose and Hermione stared at each other

"That sounds lovely Ginny." said Draco who was now regretting continuing that whole conversation with Rose

Ginny cleared off the table and brought out dessert, which unlike dinner was eaten in silence.

* * *

><p>Arriving back at home, Hugo ran straight up to his room while Rose hung around the living room with her mother.<p>

"What in Merlin's name was that all about Rose?" Hermione asked

"I just wanted to know if he was seeing anyone, is that a crime?"

"No, but it is a rude thing to do."

"I'll apologize the next time I see him then, so are you going to go out with him?"

"I don't know! We're just working together and he hasn't asked."

"Would you if he did?" Rose asked curiously

"Maybe, I'm really not sure, why?"

"I just want you to be happy, so does Hugo and Aunt Ginny, well Uncle Harry does too but he doesn't like getting involved when we set you up on dates."

"Rose I am happy."

"You keep saying that, but you smiled when you saw Mr. Malfoy today."

"I am working with him, I can't be mean towards him."

"Whatever you say mom. I'm going to go to bed now, good night." Rose gave her mom a kiss before heading up to bed, leaving her mom in the living room.

Once Rose left the room Hermione was left with her thoughts, _Would I go out with Draco? _She hadn't really thought that he would ever ask; but she thought _maybe it was time to actually start dating again. _With that thought in mind Hermione headed upstairs to bed.

* * *

><p><strong>Sort of a filler chapter but now Rose and Scorpius are home! Christmas will be next. Please leave a review! I love getting them<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! Thank you to those who reviewed or added this story to their story alert. This chapter is a little shorter but it covers Christmas. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Mom wake up!"<p>

Hermione jolted out of bed to her childrens' shouts to find them both standing at the end of her bed.

"Why on Earth are you both shouting?" she asked climbing out of bed and pulling her robe on

"Because it's Christmas!" Hugo yelled in excitement

"Oh right, how could I have forgotten, do you want breakfast before or after you open your presents?"

"After!" both Rose and Hugo yelled as they raced each other out of the room towards the living room

Hermione laughed and followed her children into the living room where they were waiting patiently for presents. After she handed them out and the living room was covered in wrapping paper and tissue, Hermione noticed a small box under the tree.

"Who's that from mom?" Hugo asked as Hermione picked up the small box

"Maybe it's from Mr. Malfoy! It looks like a jewelry box and Scorpius got me a bracelet, maybe Mr. Malfoy got you one too!" Rose shouted in excitement

"Sweetie, Mr. Malfoy and I never talked about exchanging gifts." said Hermione

"So, that doesn't mean that you can't get each other gifts." Rose said rolling her eyes at her mother

Ignoring her daughter Hermione opened the box. Sure enough inside was a simple sterling silver bracelet with a braid pattern. Incrusted into the bracelet were small rubies.

"Told you so! It's so pretty!" Rose shouted

"Mommy you should wear it later, it's so pretty looking." said Hugo

"We'll see, why don't we go eat breakfast before going over to Uncle Harry's" Hermione said getting up and heading towards the kitchen, Hugo and Rose rushed after her.

* * *

><p>Rose, Hugo and Hermione arrived at the Potters' house a few hours after they had breakfast.<p>

"Are they here yet?" Rose asked after greeting her Aunt and Uncle

"Who?" Ginny asked with a smile

"Scorpius of course!" exclaimed Rose astounded that her Aunt had forgotten

"Oh him how could I have forgotten, he's in the living room with his father, grandmother and Andromeda."

"Why's his grandmother here?" Hugo asked confused

"Because his grandmother is Andromeda's sister." explained Hermione

"So Scorpius and Teddy are cousins?" Rose asked

"Sort of, they're more like second cousins I believe." said Harry

"What's that?" asked Hugo

"Let's not get into this right now." said Hermione

"But mom…" Hugo wined

"I'll explain it to you later, let's go and open presents."

"Fine."

Hugo and Rose left the kitchen to go to the living room, followed by Harry

"Hi Scorpius!" Rose shouted as soon as she saw her friend and ran and gave him a hug, "Thank you so much for the present!"

"Hi Rose, you're welcome, thanks for the book and don't worry I didn't already have it."

"Good!"

Someone cleared their throat in the room and Rose turned her head around to see a blonde haired women sitting next to Andromeda.

"Oh sorry grandmother, Rose this is my grandmother, grandmother this is Rose." Scorpius said introducing the two women

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Malfoy." Rose said taking the hand Narcissa offered and shook it

"Please dear call me Narcissa, Andy mentioned you call her by her first name so it is only right." Narcissa said

"Alright, where is everyone else?" Rose asked Scorpius

"James wanted to show Teddy some gift he got, I didn't care so I stayed down here."

"That sounds like James, always wanting to show off his gifts."

"You're wearing the bracelet I got you." Scorpius pointed out, indicting the bracelet that was identical to Hermione's except it had emeralds instead of rubies.

"Because it's beautiful, I'm not shoving it under everyone's nose to show it to them though."

Before Scorpius could respond the rest of the kids came into the room and Ginny and Hermione brought in some light lunch foods.

"Alright everyone why don't Harry and Draco hand out the gifts." said Ginny with a clap of her hand to get every ones attention

Hermione looked around and noticed Draco standing in the door way. She hadn't even noticed him there. He strolled forward to join Harry on the floor in front of the tree and the two men started to hand out the presents. Ginny and Hermione sat down on a couch and watched their children open their presents.

"Hermione that bracelet is lovely." Ginny said once she noticed the bracelet on Hermione's wrist

"Thank you, it's a Christmas present."

"From who?"

"Draco, it was a surprise I hadn't expected a gift from him."

"That was very thoughtful of him."

"It was; Rose got a similar one from Scorpius."

"Come on Hermione he didn't get it for you just because Scorpius got Rose a bracelet."

"We're just friends."

"Hermione, I think he likes you."

"Really?"

"Yes, the first thing he asked when he got here was where you were, I think Narcissa even noticed."

"We haven't talked about dating; we've just been working together."

"Maybe he'll bring it up soon." Ginny smiled

"Excuse me ladies but can I borrow Hermione for a second?" Draco asked having come over during the end of the conversation

"Of course you can." said Ginny, who gave Hermione a shove in Draco's direction, ignoring her friend's glare

Draco lead Hermione into the kitchen, "Did you like the bracelet?" he asked

"I do, it's lovely." Hermione answered playing with the bracelet, "I'm sorry I didn't get you anything."

"It's okay, we never did decide on exchanging gifts." Draco rubbed the back of his neck a little nervous; Hermione had never seen this side of him before. "Um, would you like to go out with me to dinner on Saturday?" Draco asked

Hermione was shocked momentarily, "Um, sure Draco that would be nice."

"Great! I'll pick you up at seven then?"

"That sounds great."

The pair made their way back into the living room and Hermione shared a knowing smile with Ginny. Finishing up their Christmas celebration the Potters and Hermione's family said good bye to the Malfoys, Teddy and Andromeda; before preparing to floo over to the Burrow.

* * *

><p>Right from the start Rose and Albus had a feeling that this Christmas gathering wasn't going to go well. As soon as Molly saw them she had given them both a hug and asked how her two newest Gryffindors were doing.<p>

"Um Mom they aren't in Gryffindor." Ginny tried to explain to her now shocked mother

Looking between her two grandchildren and her daughter, "What do you mean they aren't in Gryffindor?" she asked "It's impossible for them not to be!"

"Well Mom, Victorie and Dominique are both in Ravenclaw so it is possible to be a Weasley and not be in Gryffindor." Ginny said

"Yes and I'm not saying that it's bad not to be in Gryffindor but I know for a fact that Rose and Albus are Gryffindor material!"

Ginny gave Harry a look and Harry took all the kids out of the kitchen to living room where the rest of the family was; Hermione stayed in the kitchen. "I guess you could say that your house radar is a little off then, both Rose and Albus are in Slytherin." Ginny told her mother

Molly was speechless. She stood there looking between Hermione and Ginny hoping that one of them was going to say that they were lying. "But…but how, they were raised like good Gyffindors!" shouted Molly

"Molly it has nothing to do with how we raised them, it's just how they are." Hermione tried to explain

"No, there has to be a reason. Maybe if you two didn't insist on sending them to a Muggle school before Hogwarts, who knows what they learned there; they could have been spending time with me when you both were at work." Molly mumbled to herself as she busied herself with cooking

"Mom I really don't think that going to Muggle School has anything to do with this, it's who they are, and Harry, Hermione and I all support them; we just wanted you to know that."

"Why don't you two go and join everyone else, I'll be out shortly." Molly said ignoring them

"Well that could have gone worse." Ginny said to Hermione as they headed to the living room

"Yes, now we'll just have to deal with the rest of the family." Hermione reminded Ginny who groaned

Surprisingly the rest of the Weasleys took the news rather well. George joked about it which shocked Fred and Roxanne; they were expecting their father to be upset and mean about the whole thing like they were. This quickly caused them to apologize to Rose and Albus about their behavior towards them. Both Rose and Albus were glad to see that their Weasley sweaters were in their favorite colors. They had been worried that they would be Gryffindor oriented. Once the gifts were all opened the family squished into the kitchen to sit at the table.

"So Hermione, Ginny tells me that you're seeing someone?" Angelina, George's wife, asked

Hermione shot a look at Ginny before answering her sister-in-law, "Technically he's just asked me out today but we have been working together since September."

"It's about time you see someone." Bill said from across the table, Molly kept her mouth shut, she still felt that Hermione should be loyal to Ron

"Thanks Bill." Hermione said slightly surprised

"Do we know who he is?" George asked

"Um, well he was in my year at Hogwarts."

"Is it Seamus?" asked Percy

"No."

"Anthony Goldstein then?" asked George

"No."

"Cormac?" Angelina asked

"Oh Merlin no."

"We're not really going to guess through her entire Hogwarts class are we?" asked Audrey, Percy's wife

"That would take a while." Charlie said

"Tell us!" called out a few of the Weasley wives

"Um…I'm…I'm going out to dinner with Draco." Hermione told everyone while looking down at her plate

The room was silent. None of the adults said a word and the kids all looked around at their parents, aunts and uncles, wondering why they were quiet.

"Mister Malfoy is really nice!" piped in Hugo not knowing why everyone was quiet

"And Scorpius is really nice to!" Rose added

"Who's Scorpius?" asked Percy

"He's one of my best friends Uncle Percy, Mister Malfoy is his father, and he's in my house." Rose explained to her uncle

"I see." said Percy

"You said you're working with him?" asked Charlie

"Yes, Harry paired us together for an assignment."

"He is very well qualified." Harry interjected

"I do not doubt that." Charlie reassured Harry

"Is he the one who helped save Hugo?" Bill asked

"Yes he was." said Hermione

"Then that settles the matter, he's welcome to come to a Sunday dinner anytime." Molly declared, completely surprising Hermione

"I'll make sure to tell him Molly." Hermione said with a smile

The conversation turned towards the kids as they were asked all about Hogwarts and those who had yet to go listen on is wonder.

* * *

><p>Hermione was exhausted once she got home with Rose and Hugo. Rose and Hugo went straight to bed while Hermione wandered into her study. Pulling out some parchment and finding a quill she wrote a quick letter to Draco.<p>

_Draco,_

_I told the Weasleys that I was seeing you; we are seeing each other right? I'm not really sure if being work partners can be considered seeing each other but you did ask me out and I did accept so maybe it is. Sorry, I've gone off on a tangent. I just wanted to let you know that Molly has told me that you are always welcome at the Burrow for Sunday dinner. It's an open invitation. Sunday dinners are the only time that the whole family is really all together. I'll see you Saturday. Thank you again for the bracelet._

_ Hermione_

Hermione's owl took the letter and flew out the window straight away.

* * *

><p><strong>Please Read!<br>**

**Thank you for reading! So if anyone has any ideas on where they should go on their date leave it in a review! And if you don't have an idea leave a review anyways :) I'll try to get the next chapter up before I go back to school.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry about the wait everyone. This chapter is pretty much just Draco and Hermione's date. We'll get back to the whole mission part of the story in the next chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Draco was surprised to find Hermione's owl sitting on his windowsill when he woke up. He took the letter with him down to the dining room while the owl flew up to the owlry that the house had. Arriving in the dining room Draco found Scorpius already there eating breakfast.<p>

"Who's that letter from?" Scorpius asked watching his father set the letter on the table next to his plate.

"Haven't I taught you to not go into other people's business?" Draco asked while he placed food on his plate.

"You've mentioned it, but Rose sent me a letter saying that you were going out with her mom on Saturday."

"Of course she did." Draco mumbled to himself, "Well I will tell you that this is from Hermione but I haven't read it yet."

"Fine, don't tell me then."

"I won't unless it involves you."

"Where are you going to take her?"

"What?"

"Rose's mom, where are you going to take her on Saturday?"

"I don't know yet."

"Really? How can you not know! I bet you took dates to the best places."

"How on earth can you assume that?"

"Well because of the money our family has."

"Scorpius, just because we have a lot of money doesn't mean that I always took dates to the priciest restaurants."

"So you won't take Hermione to an expensive restaurant?"

"I don't think so, I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't like it if I flaunted my money."

"You could take her to a park; Rose mentioned that her mom would take her and Hugo on walks in parks and then do a picnic."

"Have you been talking to Rose about this?"

Instead of answering the question Scorpius simply ran out of the dining room. _Probably to write to Rose_, Draco thought shaking his head in amusement. Draco did like his idea of a picnic though. Remembering that he had a letter from Hermione, Draco quickly opened it and read the letter. Finishing it, he was surprised. Never in his life had he thought that he'd be invited to join the Weasleys for their Sunday dinner or even be invited to the Weasleys' house in general. He would definitely accept the invitation.

* * *

><p>Hermione entered her kitchen to find both Rose and Hugo already eating bowls of cereal.<p>

"You two didn't want me to make you something for breakfast?" Hermione asked getting herself her own bowl of cereal.

"We figured that we'd let you sleep in." Rose explained

"Well thank you for that."

"So I told Scorpius that you and his dad are going out on Saturday." said Rose

"And why did you do that? It's not your business who I go out with."

"It's not like it was kept a secret, you did tell everyone at dinner last night."

"I know, I know."

"I did give Scorpius some ideas to tell his dad for where you two can go."

"Rose! You're not to meddle in other people affairs."

"It's not meddle! I'm just giving him ideas, how else would he know where to take you."

"He would figure it out."

"Mom the two of you haven't talked since Hogwarts before you started working together and face it you weren't friendly at all when you were in school; how on earth would he know what you like."

"That's why you go out, to get to know the other person; I'm not expecting the first date to be my dream date."

"But it would be so romantic if it was." Rose said dreamily

"That happens later on, trust me honey."

"Fine, don't accept my help then."

"Rose, I'll accept your help sometime, just not for this."

"Okay, well I have to go write a letter." As Rose put away her bowl Hermione spotted an owl sitting at the window.

"Actually I believe you have a letter from a certain boy to read." Hermione said gesturing towards the window

Rose blushed before quickly grabbing the letter, ignoring the owl's hoot of annoyance, and rushing off to her room. Hermione laughed and offered some food to the now disgruntled owl.

"Mom why do girls act so weird?" Hugo asked

"Sweetie, girls aren't weird."

"Sure they are, all they want to do is talk about boys and not Quidditch."

"You have some girl cousins who talk about Quidditch."

"But they only joined because of boys."

"Really? How do you know that?"

"Because they brag about it at the holidays."

"I see, well Hugo girls and boys just have different interests, you'll notice it more when you're older."

"Whatever you say mom." Hugo said while putting away his dishes and going to play with some of his new toys. Hermione just shook her head at her children's antics

* * *

><p>Draco paced nervously around his house on Saturday making sure everything was in order for his date with Hermione. The day before he had gone over to run some date ideas past Harry; although Harry laughed at him at first once he saw how nervous Draco was, he took pity on him and helped.<p>

"Dad, how many times are you going to walk past the fire place before you leave?" Scorpius asked walking into the living room where Draco had been pacing now for the last hour

"I haven't been pacing that long!"

"It's been well over an hour since you started."

"Oh, I didn't realize that."

"Grandmother should be here soon, she's watching me tonight while you're gone."

"I know that! I'm the one who asked her to watch you!"

"I know, I'm just reminding you that she'll be here soon."

The floo lit up at that moment and Narcissa Malfoy stepped through. "Draco are you ready to go?" she asked

"Of course mother, I was just waiting for you, Scorpius please behave for your grandmother."

"I will dad, have fun!"

Smirking at his son Draco entered the floo and vanished into the flames.

* * *

><p>Draco stepped out of Hermione's fireplace and was immediately greeted by her.<p>

"Hello Draco." Hermione said as she smiled and gave him a short, awkward hug

"Hi Hermione, are you all ready to go?" Draco asked returning the hug but making it less awkward

"Yes, where are we going?"

"That is going to remain a secret for a little while longer my dear, we'll need to apparate."

"Alright then let's go outside we can't apparate in the house."

Draco led Hermione outside and once she was holding on securely to his arm; Draco spun on the spot with a crack.

* * *

><p>The next thing Hermione knew she was standing in front of a magnificent castle. The tall stone front was stunning with two bay windows on either side of the front archway. The rest of the castle was hidden behind its walls.<p>

"Draco where are we?" Hermione asked as Draco guided her through the archway.

"We're at Sudeley Castle; I managed to pull a few strings with some wizards who work here so we have the place to ourselves." Draco explained as they continued their walk through the castle grounds

"Really!? Sudeley Castle dates back to the 500's!"

"You know I did hear that somewhere."

"Then I guess you also heard that Katherine Parr lived here and is buried in St. Mary's Church in the gardens." Hermione responded sarcastically

"Amazingly I did and look where we are." Draco gestured in front of them drawing Hermione's attention away from him and on the vast gardens of the castle. The gardens had fairy lights in the bushes and trees, lighting them in a romantic glow. "I thought that we could walk through the Queens Garden, it would take all night to go through each one." Draco smiled as Hermione remained speechless, so he led her over to the section of the garden known as the Queens Garden.

"How…how is this even possible, it's December, there's snow all over the place…but the roses." Hermione said trying to make sense of how the around 70 varieties of roses and other flowers were in full bloom around all the snow

"That's the magic of it all, just a few little spells made the flowers perfect and don't worry they will be back to normal before the muggles come tomorrow." Draco explained as he continued to walk with Hermione through the garden, very pleased that he could make her speechless

Once they finished the walk Draco directed her inside to the dining room; where dinner was waiting. He pulled out her chair and she sat down before sitting down himself.

"Can we really eat at this table? It has to be a few hundred years old at least." Hermione questioned worriedly

"Don't worry, we're allowed to eat at this table I double checked." Draco reassured her with a laugh

"Good, did your mother enjoy Christmas?" Hermione asked politely

"She did, she told me that she's glad that Scorpius has such good friends."

"That's great!"

"How was the rest of your Christmas Day?" Draco asked

"It was very hectic but very fun with all the Weasleys, they even took the news pretty well about Rose and Albus being in Slytherin; although Molly did try to deny it at first, she even blamed Ginny and I for not parenting them right at one point."

"But she accepted it, right?"

"Yes, after Ginny and I told her that we are supporting our children one hundred percent."

"Well that's good; I would feel bad if she didn't."

"I was worried that she wouldn't but things seem to be looking up."

"So I got the feeling that Rose was very excited about our date?" Draco asked

"Yes, she kept quizzing me on our relationship status and owling Scorpius with date ideas; I think she was a little over the top."

"Well have you dated before now?"

"Not really, maybe once or twice early on but they never lasted long."

"That's probably why then."

"I guess that I just find it strange that Rose has gotten over Ron's death so easily; she rarely brings it up and we only visit his grave on Ron's birthday and even then she never seems very upset."

It must have simply affected her differently."

"He was gone a lot on missions or he would get home late, it would make her upset but she simply would throw her time into reading or spending time with me."

"Potter assigned Weasley a lot of missions?"

"He must have, I never did understand it; I would point out to Ron that I was sure that Harry could lay off assigning him missions but he said it was alright."

"Huh well I'm sure that Rose just wants you to be happy." Draco said steering the conversation away from Hermione's dead husband; although he did think that Ron's work schedule was very strange since he had asked for a more relaxed schedule once Scorpius was born

"Oh I know she does and I do appreciate it but sometimes I think she can get a little out of hand."

Their conversation moved from their families to their lives after school and then back to their families. By this time it was after eleven and they were finishing up dessert. Once they were done Draco led Hermione back out of the castle, and holding onto her arm apparated.

* * *

><p>Draco brought them to the outside of Hermione's house where he walked her up to the door.<p>

"Well this was a very nice night Draco, I really enjoyed it." Hermione said once they reached the front door

"I'm glad you enjoyed it then, we will have to do this again sometime." Draco said

"Yes we will, good night then."

"Good night." Draco hugged Hermione and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before walking away from the house and disapparated, leaving Hermione standing on her front porch with a blush on her cheeks

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><p><strong>Sorter than normal but I wanted the date to be one chapter. Chapter 8 is almost done and the focus will turn back to Tristan. Please leave a review! It'll help me finish the next chapter :)<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you to everyone who added this to their story alert (now if there were only more reviews...) These next few chapter will be longer so enjoy!**

**Dislcaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>Hermione was still very happy the next morning as she walked into work. Many of her female co-workers noticed the glow that she had and asked her about her date. After giving them the story minus who the date was with since she wanted to keep that a secret; Hermione was finally able to make it to her office. As she sat down at her desk a piece of paper caught her eye. It was a simple piece of plain parchment with a short message written on it:<p>

_Meet me at the Leaky Cauldron at noon. I have something to tell you that you need to know._

The note was not signed making Hermione even more confused as to who sent the letter. She figured that meeting this mystery person wouldn't be bad since the Leaky Cauldron was a popular place; it wasn't like she would be alone with this person.

Draco arrived in the office making Hermione toss the note into her bag and they quickly got to work on finding information on Tristan. "I think I found a lead." Draco said after an hour, "It's not Tristan himself but it appears that he has a sister."

"But I thought that he grew up in an orphanage?" Hermione asked confused as to how they missed a sister

"He did, I found documents from the orphanage that stated that they had to send some of their children to another orphanage because they didn't have enough room for all the kids; his sister was one of those kids that was moved."

"That's horrible; I can't believe that they would split up siblings."

"Well they did, she was sent to an orphanage in Helsinki, Finland."

"So they didn't even keep them in the same country? No wonder we never found mention of a sister in the Hogwarts records, she probably went to Durmstrang."

"Probably, however, it does explain why after Tristan finished at Hogwarts he moved to Finland; all of his operations must be out of Finland."

"Do you think that he was behind Ron's last mission?" She asked quietly

"I guess it is possible, we didn't really know who we were looking for back then when we went into that area." Draco mumbled trying to remember exactly everything that happened on that mission

"But when we started this we assumed that the main group was here in England; do we actually know that Tristan isn't here in England or is he still in Finland?" Hermione wondered out loud

"That's the one thing we don't know; but if we can get in contact with his sister than maybe we can locate Tristan."

"So we just need to go to Finland?"

"Or we get her to come here; I'll try get in contact with her today."

"Okay then, will you do that right now I'm meeting someone for lunch soon." Hermione had just noticed that it was almost eleven thirty and she wanted to get to the Leaky Cauldron before this mystery person did

"Who are you meeting?"

"Just a friend over at the Leaky Cauldron, I shouldn't be too long."

"Okay then, let me know when you get back."

"I will, don't worry." Hermione said grabbing her coat and heading out of the door, Draco quickly left in search of Harry soon after

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><p>Hermione arrived at the Leaky Cauldron with plenty of time to spare and sat down at a table in the middle of the pub. Looking around she was pleased to see that the pub was pretty busy and with Hannah Longbottom (previously Hannah Abbot) running the pub; Hermione felt safe. Closer to noon the door to the pub swung open with a bang causing the entire pub to look at the person standing there. The hooded figure removed their hood to reveal a tall pale man with jet black hair. Looking around the pub the man made eye contact with Hermione and headed over to her table; sitting down across from her.<p>

"Who are you? Where are you from?" Hermione asked right away

"My name is Peter and I am from Finland." Peter said quietly

"Finland? You're not working for Tristan are you?" Hermione asked while grabbing her wand from her pocket

"No I do not work for Tristan, actually I oppose him; all he is planning is to change the ruling authority of England."

"Seriously? He just wants to change who is Minister? He could just run for office."

"It isn't that simple in his mind; Tristan wishes to make drastic changes and believes that the only way to do this is to have an army to keep people from opposing him."

"So he is against muggle-borns and half-bloods then?

"Mainly muggle-borns. Tristan views them as the bottom of the magical gene pool and only wishes that they only marry other muggle-borns not half-bloods or pure bloods."

"But that is still a prejudice that this government won't stand for anymore, a majority of those in the ministry have changed their views after the last wizarding war."

"Which is why he has a growing army under his control with those who do agree with him; but this is not the main reason that I am here."

"The main reason that you wanted to talk to me doesn't involve the plans of a dark wizard?"

"No, those I found out after I had already set out to meet with you; I wanted to talk to you about your husband."

"Husband? You must have me confused with someone else Peter, my husband has been dead for six years."

"And that is what I have come to tell you, he is not dead for I have seen him in Finland for a number of years but I have only recently made the connection as to who he is."

"No…no that's…it's not possible." Hermione stuttered trying to keep her composer

"It is very possible, I can provide proof if you require it."

"Peter I think it's best if you leave now."

"Fine then, I will but if you ever want to talk again simply send me an owl it will be able to find me."

Peter stood from the table and walked silently out of the pub, leaving Hermione alone at the table with her thoughts.

* * *

><p>While Hermione was at lunch Draco was looking for Harry.<p>

"Potter there you are, I've been looking for you." Draco finally said to Harry having found him in the lunch room at the ministry

"Well I did think that I would eat lunch, do you need something?" asked Harry

"I want to look at my memories from the mission that Ron 'vanished' during."

"We looked at the whole teams memories after you came back, you know that."

"I feel like something is missing though, I was trying to remember what happened on the mission earlier this morning and the memory was sharp."

"Draco it was six years ago, you can only remember the details for so long."

"Then let me look at the memories from the team; maybe I can notice something that the rest of you missed."

"Fine, I'll humor you and let you do this." Harry finally agreed and stood up from the table where he was eating his lunch, leading Draco back to his office

When they arrived at Harry's office, Harry shut the door and placed complex privacy wards over the door. He then unlocked a secret door and pulled out his own pensive with its swirling memories.

"You've used one of these before, right?" Harry asked Draco

"Just once." Draco said

"Okay then, let's get this over with." And both Harry and Draco touched the pensive and were sucked inside.

Opening his eyes Draco saw the old building that the team had been investigating when Ron had vanished. "Where are we?" Harry asked from next to him

"We're at the building that we had been investigating." Draco explained, "Look there is my team." Draco pointed to the people who had just appeared, they could clearly see Draco and Ron leading the group

"We split up once we were in the building." Draco explained to Harry as they followed the aurors into the house

"Hey, it may have been six years but I do remember what the reports said." Harry said aggravated that Draco was treating him that he didn't have a clue

"Right, sorry then." Draco mumbled while they followed the memory Draco and Ron

"Is this the room that you got hit by the curse?" Harry asked suddenly

"I think it is." Draco answered looking around the room for any clues as to who had cursed him, "What is Ron doing?" he asked suddenly

Harry turned to look at Ron and watched as his friend appeared to be talking to thin air. It didn't last long and Ron soon headed towards the far door while Harry and Draco watched as a bolt of light came from the spot Ron and just been and hit the memory Draco.

"Someone else was here." stated Draco

"And they were the ones to curse you." Harry added "Let's get out of here; your memories won't be any more useful to us now that you're unconscious."

Draco nodded and both men felt the strange sensation of being pulled out of the pensive. Now back in Harry's they both sat down in a chair before talking.

"So Ron knew that someone was in that room, did he ask to be in the group that covered that side of the building?" Harry questioned Draco

"I can't recall, I'm pretty sure that we set up which group was going where before we even reached the building but I don't know if Ron had any impute."

"I'll go through the reports from the other team members then; what's really bothering me is that the person he was talking to could be involved with Tristan's group."

"He could have been working with them and simply left after I was cursed." Draco voiced

"Exactly, we never knew if he was actually dead, how am I supposed to tell Hermione that Ron might be alive but that he could also be working with the neo-death eater group?"

"Maybe we wait a bit; I mean we really don't have any evidence that he is alive so until then she wouldn't believe us anyways."

"That is true; speaking of Hermione shouldn't she be back from lunch by now?" Harry asked

"Probably, I should head back; let me know if you find anything." Draco said as he left Harry's office, leaving Harry to dig through six year old files

* * *

><p>Draco arrived at Hermione's office just a few minutes after she had returned herself.<p>

"How was lunch with your friend?" Draco asked

"What, oh it was fine; I've actually made some head way with this Tristan guy." Hermione said somewhat, distracted not looking at Draco

"What did you find?" Draco asked sitting in he's usual seat on the couch

"He's a pureblood supremacist who wants control of our government but he knows that the only way that it will happen is if he uses force." She explained

"Is he another Voldemort?"

"No it doesn't sound like it, Tristan simply views that muggle borns should only marry other muggle borns; I don't believe that he is looking to kill them."

"I guess that's a plus if you can even call it that." Draco mumbled under his breath hoping that Hermione didn't hear him, she didn't seem to hear him as she was simple staring blankly at her desk. "Hermione are you okay?" he asked concerned

"What…oh yes I'm fine Draco, I think that I'm going to leave a little early today." Hermione said grabbing her papers and bag

"But it's just after lunch, do you feel okay?" He asked getting up from the couch and walking over to her

"I do feel a little strange, I must have ate something funny, don't worry I'll be fine."

"I'll come by and check on you later, do you want me to pick up Hugo and Rose from the Potter's later?"

"Sure…sure that would be great." She said once more in a distracted manor as if she was too busy thinking of something else to remember her kids

"I'll see you later then, I hope you feel better."

"Thanks Draco." Hermione gave him a kiss on the cheek before rushing out of her office towards the fireplaces to floo home. Draco watched her confused, _What had happened during her lunch? _He wondered. He was pulled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door; Harry was standing there.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked walking into the office

"She just rushed out saying that she didn't feel well, she was acting pretty weird though." Draco told him

"Do you think that she's okay?" Harry asked

"I don't know, I'm going to take Hugo and Rose back home tonight so I'll check on her then."

"Good, I intercepted this owl that had a letter for you." Harry said handing Draco the letter that he had pulled out of his pocket

"Trying to take my mail now?" Draco joked taking the letter from Harry

"The owl was sitting in your office so I grabbed it to bring to you, what's it say?"

Draco finished reading the letter before responding, "We had found out that Tristan had a sister who ended up growing up in Finland so I wrote to her asking her to come into the Ministry to answer some questions; this is her response saying that she can be here tomorrow."

"Well that's good, what's her name?"

"Her name is Kristen."

"Seriously? I guess their parents had a thing for names that rimed."

"Yeah I guess so, oh Hermione had a break though in what Tristan wants, he pretty much wants to take over our Ministry and impose his views on us which means he doesn't want muggle borns marrying anyone who isn't a muggle born or probably a muggle."

"So a slightly nicer Voldemort?"

"Pretty much, it doesn't sound like he wants to go on a mass killing spree."

"Well I guess that's a pulse, I want to be there when you question his sister tomorrow."

"Sure thing, she's coming in at ten and I'm sure Hermione will want to be there too."

"Probably, let me know when you plan on leaving today since you do need to go to my house." Harry said getting up from the couch

"Sure thing." Draco said as Harry walked out of the office leaving Draco to try and make more head way in the case

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Hermione had just arrived to her quiet house and through herself into cleaning. Her mind was still reeling from what Peter had said; she just couldn't believe that Ron was alive in Finland. A few hours later Hermione was distracted from her cleaning spree (she was now cleaning her bedroom) by the tapping of an owl on the window, assuming that it was from Rose she hurried over to open the window. Once the owl settled down on the table Hermione realized that it wasn't Rose's owl. Looking at the mysterious letter she opened up the letter and a picture fell out along with a small piece of paper. Picking up the piece of paper first she read the short note: <em>Hermione I know that you don't believe me but here is proof. Peter. <em>Glancing at the photo that was lying face down on her bed Hermione wasn't sure if she wanted to turn it over. Very slowing she picked up the photo and turned it over.

Staring back at her was a picture of three people sitting at a café. In the middle were a man, women and young girl sitting at the table. The man was her supposedly dead husband, Ron Weasley, who was very much alive in the picture. To his left was a middle age women with long straight black hair and black eyes, laughing at something that had been said. In between the couple was a girl who looked no older than eight which made her a year younger than Hugo; the girl had her mother's black hair and the same blue eyes as Ron.

"No…no….Ron…why?" Hermione mumbled tears falling down her eyes as she collapsed on her bed crying, the picture falling on the floor next to her

* * *

><p>Draco arrived at Hermione's house with Rose and Hugo in tow around six. He was surprised that Hermione wasn't in the kitchen with dinner ready.<p>

"I guess it's a good thing that Ginny gave us food when we left." Draco said after looking around the entire lower part of the house for Hermione

"Can we eat now or do we have to wait for mum?" Hugo asked rubbing his hungry stomach

"You two can eat; I'll go see if she fell asleep upstairs." Draco said leading Rose and Hugo back to the kitchen and setting up the food for them on the table.

Once they were eating Draco left the kitchen and headed upstairs. Walking along the upstairs hallway he noticed that one of the doors was open. Peeking into the room Draco found Hermione curled up in a ball on her bed.

"Hermione." Draco called into the room; the only response he got was a slight movement but no acknowledgement. He walked into the room and shut the door behind him. Going over to the bed he sat down on the edge of it and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione are you alright? What's wrong?"

"It's true." She mumbled into her pillow

"What's true?"

"L…look at the picture."

Confused, Draco looked around for a picture that would upset her. Finally he noticed a picture on the floor and picked it up. Glancing at it he couldn't believe what he saw.

"Don't worry about it Hermione, we'll figure this out." Draco said soothingly rubbing her back in a circular motion

"I…I….how…how could he…he d…do this, I thought that he loved me." Hermione pulled herself up and throw herself into Draco sobbing even harder

"I don't know how but I'll make this better, how about I just tell Rose and Hugo that you aren't feeling well, you can stay up here and I'll make sure that they are taken care of."

"What about Scorpius?" She asked with her face in his shoulder still

"He's with my parents right now, I'll just send them an owl explaining that you're sick and they won't press the matter."

"Okay."

"I'll be right back with some food that Ginny made."

Draco laid Hermione back on the bed and hide the picture in his pocket before heading back downstairs. He quickly explained things to Rose and Hugo and after reassuring them that their mother was alright; he wrote a quick letter to his parents explaining that he might not be home tonight. After doing all of that he put together a plate of food and took it upstairs to Hermione.

"What are Rose and Hugo doing?" Hermione asked in between bits of food

"The said that they are watching something called a tv I guess." Draco told her

"It's a muggle invention."

"Of course it is, that's why they both laughed at me when I told them that I had no idea what they were talking about." He scowled

Hermione laughed, "I'll need to introduce you to muggle technology then, and I can't introduce you to my parents and have you be all clueless."

"You're introducing me to your parents?" He asked slightly surprised since they had only just started dating

"Well of course I will, maybe soon I mean I have already met your parents."

"Really? You met my parents under the worst circumstances you will meet them properly, maybe after the kids go back to school."

"Fine then, just let me know when."

"Of course my love." Draco said giving her a quick kiss

"You took the picture didn't you?" Hermione asked changing the tone of the conversation

"I figured that you wouldn't want it around and I was planning on showing it to Harry in the morning." Draco explained quickly

"Thank you very much and for telling Harry, I'm not sure if I would be able to tell him without crying again."

"Hermione if you weren't crying I would be worried." He said smoothing back her hair lovingly causing her to smile up at him

"Thank you for being here, you should probably check on Rose and Hugo."

"You don't want to come down with me?"

"I think I can manage coming down actually, now that you asked."

Hermione composed herself and headed out of her bedroom with Draco behind her. Rose and Hugo were very happy to see that their mum was feeling better. Both quickly started telling her about their day with Ginny and their cousins. Draco looked on smiling and after the kids went to bed, he too departed after making sure that Hermione was alright with him leaving. Hermione curled up in her bed, after the kids fell asleep and Draco left, hoping that somehow this whole situation would just go away as she fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Helsinki, Finland (same day)<strong>

"Why do you need to go to London?"

"Honey I've explained this loads of times, someone from their auror department needs to talk to me about Tristan." Kristin tried explaining to her husband for what felt like the tenth time

"We haven't heard from your brother since he helped me find a way to live with you and Diana."

"I know that it's been six years since we've heard from him, but I just want to let the aurors know that. I have no idea why they actually want to talk to me."

"Fine, but I'm going with you."

"Alright that's fine, don't forget then you'll have Diana with you as well."

"That's fine."

"I'll go pack for us then, the portkey is scheduled for eleven in the morning."

Kristen gave her husband a quick kiss before going to pack for the trip to London. Now alone in the room Ron Weasley looked out of the window hoping that he wouldn't run into a certain person tomorrow, as he hadn't seen anyone from England for six years.

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><p><strong>:) Tada. Please leave a review! Till next time<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the wait, It took my beta-reader longer to edit this chapter than the others. I hope you enjoy it :) Thanks to those who reviewed last time!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>Arriving in the Ministry the next morning, Draco quickly made his way to Harry's office. Sure enough Harry was sitting alone in his office. He quickly walked into the office and shut the door behind him causing Harry to look up at him confused.<p>

"What's going on Draco?" Harry asked watching Draco pace his office

"Hermione received an owl last, I'm not sure who it's from but they sent her a picture of…well…you're not going to believe it." Draco reached into his bag and pulled out the picture. He tossed it onto Harry's desk where it landed face up.

Harry picked up the picture studying it. Slowly the color drained from his face when he realized who the man was. "When was this taken?"

"I'm not sure when but according to the back, it was taken in Finland."

"But this girl…she can't be that old…she looks like she might be…"

"Only a year younger than Hugo. I know I can't believe it."

"Why though? He never mentioned anything to me, and both he and Hermione seemed so happy in their marriage."

"You knew him better than I did; it does clear up what he was telling me during his last mission; about seeing his wife and kid."

"He had to have been seeing this woman before Hugo was born for this girl to only look like she's a year younger than him."

"Hermione did tell me that Ron was away on missions a lot more than you were and he never wanted to cut back on them."

"I had always thought that he did that to make more money, I knew it meant a lot to him to be able to provide for his family."

"We'll he did seem to do that, he just had two families." mumbled Draco

"How did Hermione handle it?"

"I found her lying on her bed crying when I brought Rose and Hugo home, she was extremely upset but that is to be expected."

"Did she calm down? Rose and Hugo didn't see this did they?"

"She did eventually calm down; I managed to get her to eat dinner. Rose and Hugo just thought that she was sick, they didn't see the picture."

"Good, I don't know how we can explain this to them or even the rest of the Weasleys."

"That is all on you, I'm not explaining this to the entire Weasley family."

"Thanks, when should Tristan's sister be here?"

"Kristen should be here in an hour; actually we should go get Hermione, because she wanted to be there when we questioned her."

Draco and Harry left Harry's office and made their way over to Hermione's. Walking into the office they found her writing quickly on a piece of parchment.

"Hi Hermione." Harry said in a warm caring tone

Hermione looked up quickly and smiled at Harry before getting up and running into Harry's arms. Harry hugged Hermione for a few minutes before letting her go.

"It'll be alright Hermione, we'll figure everything out."

"I know we will, now I have figured out what questions we need to ask Kristen when she gets here; are we escorting her from the portkey arrival area or are you having other aurors doing that?" Hermione asked picking up the parchment that she had been writing on

Harry shook his head in disbelief as he watched Hermione get straight to business. "I'm having an auror meet her and bring her up to an interrogation room."

"That's probably a good idea. Should we head over to the room?"

"Sounds good to me." Draco said feeling slightly left out of the conversation

The trio headed over to the interrogation room where they were surprised to find Kristen and the auror waiting for them.

"Sorry that I'm a little early, my husband insisted on escorting me and we had to bring our daughter too, they went out to walk around London though." Kristen explained the trio not noticing that Draco and Harry were gawking at her and Hermione was trying not to cry. Kristen had straight black hair and black eyes and was a dead ringer for the women in the photo with Ron. "Is something wrong?" She asked when she noticed that no one had said anything to her yet

"Oh sorry, nothing is wrong you just look familiar that's all." Harry quickly explained

"Oh well it's been some time since I've been to England, I've been living in Finland for the last eight years." Kristen explained

"Eight years?" Draco asked slightly confused he would have thought that it would have been six years

"Yes, I moved back there when I found out that I was pregnant. I wanted to raise my child where I grew up, my husband moved out there a few years later to be with us."

"Of course, if you'll just come in here we can ask you the questions and then you can be on your way." Harry said gesturing to the door and following Kristen in

Before Draco went in he turned to look at Hermione whose eyes were shining with unshed tears. "Why don't you just go in the observation room or back to your office, you don't have to be in there." He said pulling her into a hug to comfort her

"I'll just be in the observation room, I should be okay, and here are the questions that you should ask her." She said shoving the parchment into his hand and heading into the room next to the interrogation room.

Draco sighed before walking into the interrogation room and sitting next to Harry, across from Kristen.

"I'll be recording the conversation if that is fine with you." Harry told her and when she nodded Harry pulled out a muggle looking tape recorder and pressed the record button. "For the record can you please state your name?" Harry asked

"Kristen Weasley, I don't have a middle name." She answered

"And you're married?"

"Yes to Ron Weasley, we've been married for six years."

"And how old is your daughter?"

"She is eight, Ron wasn't able to come out with us right away when he learned that I was pregnant, he still visited plenty of times though."

"Right, well we just wanted to ask you a few question about your brother Tristan." Draco explained

"I haven't seen him in about six years, he helped my husband come over from England and then we stopped taking to him."

"Why did your husband need help getting to Finland?" Draco asked

"He was tied down with some personal matters with his family; he never told me any details."

"So you have never met his family?" Harry asked

"No, he said that he was leaving on a bad note and didn't want to upset anyone."

"Well we think your husband is connected to your brother." Draco explained slightly hoping that he was wrong

"That's impossible, like I said we haven't heard from him in six years!" She shouted

"So you have no idea what he is planning on doing to England?" Harry asked

"Oh no, no, no, no he said that he would do that." Kristen mumbled under her breath

"Do what?" Draco asked

"A while ago he told me that he wanted to become Minister of the British Ministry in order to change it back to the way they should be; I don't know what he meant but he did borrow some money from me a while ago too."

"You wouldn't happen to know if he is still in Finland or not would you?" Draco asked

"No but I could probably find out and then tell you."

"That would definitely help us a lot, just don't tell him why you are wondering, we don't want you or your family to get hurt." Harry told her

"Alright, are we done?" Kristen asked

"Yes we are, the auror outside can escort you to the atrium unless you are meeting your family elsewhere." Draco told her and they all stood up and walked out of the room, Hermione walked out of the observation room at the same time.

"No the atrium is fine, thank you very much." Kristen said

"Not a probably, thank you for your time." Harry said as they watched the auror lead Kristen away. "Let's go back to my office." He said to Draco and Hermione

* * *

><p>"So what are we going to do? Questioning her was a dead end." Hermione asked once they were seated in Harry's office<p>

"Well I guess we will just have to wait to see if she can find out where Tristan is." Harry said

"I think we should call it a day, it's not like we can do anything else right now." voiced Draco

"Sounds good to me." Hermione agreed

Within a few minutes the trio had gathered their belongings and garbed a lift up to the atrium. They were not prepared for what they saw when they exited the lift. There standing near the statue was Ron with Kristen and their daughter. Hermione froze and Draco and Harry had to drag her along as they walked along the far wall around the statue; both men were glaring daggers at Ron the whole time. Their plan didn't last long though as Ron and his new family began to also walk towards the fireplaces. Harry ran into someone just as the trio reached a fireplace and when he turned to apologize he realized that it was Kristen.

"Um sorry about that." Harry said trying not to look at Ron who had turned pale at the sight of Harry

"Oh don't worry about it; this is my husband by the way, Ron, and our daughter Diana." Kristen said introducing them oblivious to the fact both new full well who the other was

"I know, we've met before." Harry said harshly while Draco pushed Hermione behind him a bit so that she was almost out of sight

"Yeah, it's been a few years." Ron said glaring at Draco for his action

"Oh, well it is a small world." Kristen said trying to lighten the mood

"Right, we were just going then." Harry said turning away from Ron and Kristen back towards Draco and Hermione

"You should join us for dinner!" Kristen shouted all of a sudden

"Huh?" Harry asked confused turning back around to face her

"All three of you should join us for dinner." She repeated

"No thank you." Hermione said speaking for the first time in the conversation. "My kids are expecting me for dinner tonight." She added looking directly at Ron who shrunk away from the glare that she was giving him

"Oh, they're welcome to come too if you want." Kristen said seeming determined to have the trio out for dinner

"No I don't think that they would enjoy themselves, it's nothing personal." Hermione said curtly before walking into the fireplace and flooing off

"What's wrong with her?" Kristen asked rudely

"She's had an upsetting week, she found out her 'dead' husband is still alive and has a new family." Draco spat staring at Ron the entire time who was avoiding making eye contact with anyone

"That's horrible the poor thing, I hope the two of you are taking good care of your friend." Kristen said somehow oblivious to the fact both Harry and Draco were glaring at Ron

"Oh we are, the two of us just started dating so I'll be able to help her out." Draco said with a smile as he watched Ron start to scowl at him

"Well that's good; I hope that you two are happy."

"We are very happy, thank you very much, I need to get going now, please do let us know if you find out where your brother is." Draco said as politely as he could

"I will." Kristen said watching both Harry and Draco leave through the fireplace

"Can you imagine thinking someone is dead just to find out that they left you for a new family?" Kristen said to Ron as they left the ministry with Diana for the street above

"Sounds horrible." Ron mumbled distracted as he was unable to get rid of the sad look that he had seen on Hermione's face from his mind. _How can she be dating Malfoy. _Ron thought disgusted as he followed his family back to the hotel they were staying at.

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><p>Draco had followed Hermione to her house and discovered her in the middle of cooking dinner. She acknowledged his presence with a nod of head but didn't say a word. He simple sat down at the table and waited for her to speak.<p>

"I'm going to need to tell Rose and Hugo." Hermione said after a while breaking the silence of the kitchen

"Do you want me to be here when you do?" Draco asked

"I don't think so, but maybe you could be on standby, Hugo has really started to look up to you."

"I'll be on standby then. Will you do it tonight?"

"I think so, I'd rather do it sooner rather than later and risk them finding out some other way."

"That's a good idea."

Suddenly the floo flared and Rose and Hugo came through.

"Hi Draco!" Hugo shouted running over and giving Draco a hug. "Are you staying for dinner again tonight?" he asked

"No I'm not, I was just leaving actually." Draco told him getting up from his seat

"Aw man, I wish you could stay, we could play chess." Hugo whined

"Don't worry I'll be back soon." Draco said with a laugh

"Can you bring Scorpius when you come back?" Rose asked

"We'll see about that, I'll see you all later." Draco said with a smile and gave Hermione a kiss before leaving

"Dinner is almost ready, why don't you go and wash up." Hermione said and both Rose and Hugo raced off to the bathroom to wash their hands

Hermione placed the dinner on the table and sat down in her usual seat, staring blankly ahead of her; she had no idea how she was going to tell her children that their father was alive. Rose and Hugo came back into the kitchen at the same time chatting about something that had happened earlier and sat down.

"Mum are you alright?" Rose asked noticing Hermione's vague expression

"I need to tell you both something and I'm not sure how to do it." Hermione told them as she placed food on her plate, both Rose and Hugo followed suit waiting for her to say more

"Is it bad news?" Hugo asked

"It depends how you feel about it."

"That's a pretty vague answer." Rose pointed out

"Do you remember when our old owl died?" Hermione asked deciding to switch tactics

"Pig? Yeah I remember, I think I was seven and I cried for like the whole day." Rose said

"I remember too! How old was I then?" Hugo asked wanting to get his facts straight

"You would have been five." Rose told him "What does this have to do with your news?" Rose asked her mother

"Well how would you feel if Pig was all of a sudden alive again?" Hermione asked them

"I'd be confused, you can't come back from the dead." said Hugo

"Uncle Harry came back from the dead." Rose informed her brother

"Really?! No way, you have to be lying." Hugo said

"Nope, I'm telling the truth, just ask him the next time you see him."

"Okay now you two are off topic." Hermione said putting a stop to this argument

"Sorry, I think I would feel happy but at the same time sad because Pig didn't come back to us right away." Rose told Hermione "Why are you asking? Has someone come back from the dead?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "In doing background checks on the mission that I'm working on Draco and I found a…an abnormality I guess it can be called; we found a person who could help us locate someone and at the same time we found someone who has been missing for years."

Hermione looked at her children's faces and could tell that Rose was piecing it together. Her face had paled and she had a look of horror on her face. Hugo appeared to have no idea what Hermione meant or at least he wasn't showing that he knew what she meant.

"N…no mum it's impossible." Rose whispered

"I wish it was dear." Hermione said softly

"Have you seen him?"

"When I was leaving the ministry with Harry and Draco today yes, he didn't say a word to me."

"So he didn't ask about us? About the family that he abandoned!" Rose nearly shouted

"Honey I have no idea what caused him to do any of these, but if he does ask to see you do you want to see him? I'm not sure how long he will be in London."

"I…I don't know, I would have to think about it, can I be excused?"

"Sure thing, I'll bring you dessert later."

Rose stood up and slammed her chair back into the table instead of just pushing it in. She nearly ran out of the kitchen and soon the sound of her door shutting could be heard. Hugo stared after his sister confused by her reaction.

"Mum what's wrong with Rose?" Hugo asked confused

Hermione sighed; she had thought that explaining this to Hugo would be the hardest. "Hugo, I'm just going to tell you what happened, alright?"

Hugo nodded, wanting to know what his mum and sister had been talking about.

"Your father is still alive, he never died."

"But if dad was alive why isn't he here?" Hugo asked still confused, he may not remember his father as well since he was just three when Ron 'vanished' but he knew enough that dad's should always be around

"It's complicated sweetie."

"I'm nine! You can tell me!"

"Well for whatever reason he had your father decided to leave us."

"But didn't he love us?" Hugo asked tears forming in his eyes

"Oh sweetie, he loved us all very much."

"Okay, do I have to see him?"

"Not if you don't want to."

"Good, I want to play chess with Draco, can he come over?"

Hermione was shocked at the quick change in attitude of Hugo. Sure she was never too sure on how much of Ron, Hugo remembered, but it obviously wasn't a lot.

"I'll see if they can come over for dessert."

"Okay, I'm going to go play with my toys."

Hugo pushed his chair in and ran out of the kitchen. Hermione cleared the table with a flick of her wand and quickly stuck her head in the floo, to floo Draco. After a few minutes she finished her conversation with him and stood back as Draco and Scorpius came through the floo. Scorpius quickly took off to talk with Rose and Draco stayed in the kitchen.

"How did they take the news?" Draco asked while he watched Hermione get dessert out

"Well Rose was really upset and hurt and Hugo was just upset a little bit but it didn't last long."

"He was only three when Ron 'vanished.'"

"I know, it still surprised me though. So, Hugo wants to play wizards chess with you, that's actually the main reason you're here." She told him as she carried the dessert and placed it on the kitchen table with plates and forks

"You didn't want to see my dashing good looks again?" Draco said with a smirk

"Maybe if you play your cards right you can stay the night." Hermione whispered into his ear

Draco's response never happened as at that moment the doorbell rang.

"I'll answer the door, Hugo is upstairs in his room, and I'll bring dessert up in a minute." Hermione said heading towards the door not looking back as Draco walked upstairs

As she swung the door open nothing could prepare Hermione for the sight of Ron on her doorstep, who was smiling sheepishly.

"Hi Hermione, mind if I come in?" Ron asked

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><p><strong>Interesting huh? Lots of background but the next chapter will be interesting! Please leave a review letting me know what you thinkyour reactions :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you for all the reviews last chapter! This chapter is on the short side but the next one should be normal length again. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>Hermione stood there in shock for a few seconds before stepping out onto the front step and shutting the door behind her.<p>

"Mind if you come in?" she snapped at Ron who back away from her a bit. "You made me think that you were dead for six years and the first thing you actually say to me is mind if I come in? What the hell are you thinking Ronald?!" Hermione practically shouted at him

"I want to explain everything to you, I promise; can we just go inside?"

"I have company over and I know bloody well that your other daughter is only a year younger than Hugo, so what you found time to date someone else when you were out on all your little missions and even after I got pregnant with your son."

"I never meant for it to happen, it just did."

"Oh don't give me that bull Ron, you could have at least told me, we could have just gotten a divorce if you were so unhappy, but no, you have to go and vanish during an auror mission and make us all think that you were dead."

"Hermione if we got a divorce mum would have killed me."

"Well that's a lame excuse; Molly will probably want to kill you even more now since you abandoned your family and all."

Ron looked down at his feet ashamed mainly because he knew full well that Hermione was right. "Can I just come in and see the kids? I'm sure that you've told them that I'm not actually dead."

"I did tell them and Rose doesn't want to talk to you at all."

"What? Please just let me in, maybe I can make everything right." Ron pleaded

"I doubt that you could do that, but fine, come in and if you even set a toe out of line you'll be leaving."

Ron nodded in agreement and followed Hermione inside. He looked around the entry way and noticed that many of the old pictures of him and Hermione were gone. Their wedding picture was there but it was no longer the center point over the fireplace in the living room. Ron sighed when he noticed this; he hadn't actually thought that Hermione would have moved on from him. The sound of feet on the stairs distracted Ron and he turned to see Hugo walking slowly into the living room, Rose was nowhere in sight.

"Hi." Hugo said quietly he had remained standing in the door way observing Ron

"Hi Hugo, Have you missed me?" Ron asked hopefully

"So you're my dad?" Hugo asked

Ron froze; he had never actually thought that Hugo wouldn't remember him. "Well yeah of course I am."

"Oh, I think I remember you it is kind of hard to remember certain people when I was younger, especially when so many relatives have red hair; I have read in a book that kids usually don't actually start remembering things till they're almost four at times." Hugo explained still standing in the doorway

"Right, so you like to read?" Ron asked, when Hugo had been born he had always pictured his son being like him

"Yeah I do, Quidditch is alright but I really only play because we are sometimes short a player when all the Weasley cousins and Potters play." Hugo explained

"Right then, what else do you like to do?" Ron asked now sitting on the couch hoping that Hugo would also sit down

"I play Wizards Chess, Uncle Bill taught me how to play, and he says that I'm pretty good at it."

"I loved to play chess, maybe we could play sometime?"

"No thanks, I'm in the middle of playing a game right now with a friend of mum's and Uncle Bill or Uncle Charlie usually play with me, Rose too but she isn't that good at it."

Ron frowned slightly; all he wanted was to get to know his son. "Well then what about flying? We could fly together sometime?"

"I guess we could but I don't own a broom and Rose doesn't like it when I borrow her broom."

"How do you play Quidditch then?" Ron asked confused how his son could not own a broom

"I usually borrow one from Uncle Harry, they have a few extra ones, he's the one who taught me how to fly." Hugo explained

"Of course he did." Ron mumbled under his breath

"So when do you need to go?" Hugo asked suddenly

"Go? What do you mean?"

"Well mum explained that you have another family, don't you need to go back to them?"

"Oh, well I will, I just wanted to talk to you and Rose since I haven't seen you in a while."

"You're the one who left us, what did you expect us to open are arms and welcome you back?" A voice said suddenly from behind Hugo

Hugo turned around and found Rose standing behind him and noticed that she was glaring at their father.

"Well I'm going to go finish my chess game, bye." Hugo rushed back upstairs without even looking at Ron. Ron dropped his head in defeat; he had been hoping to make a connection with Hugo.

"You know you shouldn't be surprised that he hardly remembers you, he was just three when you left and before that you were hardly around." Rose said harshly also standing in the doorway as Hugo had done

"Rose, you have to remember how much fun we used to have." Ron said smiling at his daughter

"Fun times? All I remember is that you were away a lot and when you were here all you wanted to do was watch Quidditch, you didn't even teach me how to fly a broom, Uncle George did because he saw how sad I was about not being able to fly one!"

Ron frowned; not remember this at all. "But Rosie I bought you your first broom."

"You may have bought it for me but the day after my birthday you went on a mission without teaching me how to fly it, you didn't even try to teach me after you got back, I was waiting for my father to teach me but you never did." Rose practically shouted as fresh tears fell from her eyes

"Rosie I'm sorry I wasn't around a lot but I can make it up to you, please."

"Make it up to me? You're going to go back to Finland with your nice new family, how could you ever make up six years of my life."

"I was thinking about moving back to England, we could do father, daughter stuff."

"Even if you do move back with your new family, I go back to school in a week."

"Oh right, can't have Gryffindor House missing a Weasley now can we."

"Actually they wouldn't be missing a Weasley at all."

Ron looked at Rose in utter confusion. "What do you mean? You're a Weasley of course you're in Gryffindor."

"Actually there some of us Weasleys who aren't in Gryffindor, I was sorted into Slytherin along with Albus."

"What! That's impossible!" Ron stood up shouting

"Not really, it's not like you know how I act or anything."

"Well I can see right now that you're acting spoiled, I give you a chance to see me more often and you're turning me down."

"Of course, I'm skeptical that you'll actually stick around, how do you expect me to act towards a man who abandoned his family for six years and then just waltzes back in to our lives expecting us to welcome him with open arms!." Rose shouted at him before storming away back up to her room

"Come back here! I'm not done talking to you!" Ron shouted following Rose upstairs

"Ron, What do you think you're doing?" Hermione demanded having been standing at the top of the stairs during the entire conversation with both Hugo and Rose

"I'm going to talk to my daughter." Ron said trying to push past Hermione

"Oh no you're not, how dare you shout at her, you deserve her anger but she doesn't deserve any of your anger, you need to leave."

"Well maybe if you raised them to respect their parents she wouldn't be shouting at me."

"Do you hear what you just said!? She respects me and all of her Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents, It's the father that abandoned us that she doesn't respect for very good reasons you weren't here to raise her, that's the problem!" Hermione shouted back at Ron

Ron froze and found himself starring past Hermione at a figure down the hall. Hermione turned around and found Draco standing there awkwardly.

"Um, I was just going to grab Scorpius and leave." Draco said after a minute or so of awkward silence

"You don't have to go yet, we still haven't had dessert." Hermione told him ignoring Ron

"Really Hermione its okay, we'll need to leave room for dinner tomorrow anyways." Draco said with a smile

"Of course I almost forgot that tomorrow was Sunday, we usually get there around four."

"Alright then, I'll aim to get us there by then."

By now Scorpius had come out of Rose's room and Rose was standing in her doorway watching the conversation. Hugo was also standing behind Draco now.

"You'll be at dinner tomorrow? Hugo asked excited

"Yes, your Gran invited me." Draco told Hugo, behind them Ron's face began to turn red as he started to realize what they were talking about

"You're going to be at the Burrow tomorrow!?" Ron shouted at Draco "They would never let a Death Eater in there!"

"Ronald Billius Weasley! Harry has worked with Draco for six years now, he's saved Hugo's life and he is no longer the same person he was in school; your mother has invited him to Sunday dinners because we are dating now and you are leaving now." Hermione shouted at him scaring everyone standing within ear shot, she began to push him down the stairs and Ron found his footing so he didn't end up falling down the stairs.

Hermione slammed the door in Ron's face and magically locked it and threw up a ward against Ron at the same time. Draco slowly made his way down the stairs toward a slightly crying Hermione. The kids had all retreated to Rose's room.

"Mione are you alright?" Draco asked softly from besides Hermione, placing a hand on her shoulder

"I…I actually thought…that Ron would be nice to us." She sobbed

"I think that he thought nothing would have changed since he left, he definitely didn't expect Rose to be in Slytherin." Draco said

"It's silly to think that in six years everything would be the same." Hermione mumbled into Draco's shoulder as he pulled her into a hug

"That's Ron for you. So how about dessert and Scorpius and I will stay the night if you want?" Draco asked with a smile

Hermione laughed, nodding her head yes, and went to get the dessert. Draco brought the kids down to the kitchen where they all ate the cake that Hermione had made. Once the cake was all gone, Hermione set up the spare bed in Hugo's room for Scorpius. While the Malfoy house elf brought clothes over for both Malfoys. As Draco got the kids ready for bed Hermione went into her library to write a letter to Harry. She wanted to give him a heads up that Ron had stopped by so that he knew that Ron was still in England. After sending off the letter Hermione went to join Draco in bed.

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><p><strong>Thank you all for reading! Please leave a review with any thoughts :) The next chapter may take a while I have just started writing it.<br>**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello Everyone! I'm sorry that this one took a while, college work has piled up on me. Thank you to everyone who has revied or added this to their story alerts!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p>Harry was very confused when Hermione's owl showed up at the window while he was cleaning the living room. Once he read the letter, he quickly went to find Ginny with Hermione's owl on his shoulder.<p>

"Um…Ginny I need to tell you something and you might not like it." Harry said to his wife once he found her in the kitchen

"What's wrong?" she asked having noticed Hermione's owl perched on Harry's shoulder

"Well you're not going to believe it but…well…Ron is alive." Harry watched as Ginny's face went deathly white and the plate she had been holding fell to the floor with a crash

"No…no Harry that's…he wouldn't leave Hermione and the kids." Ginny said shakily

"I hate it too but he did, his new 'wife' is the person of interest's sister in our case; she was in for questioning today and he was there with her, they have a daughter."

"How old?" Ginny whispered

"She's eight."

"Oh Merlin, only a year younger than Hugo."

"Hermione just sent me a letter; Ron showed up at her house a little while ago and wanted to talk to Rose and Hugo."

"Did she let him?"

"She let Rose and Hugo decide, both kids did talk to him but it didn't go well; Ron didn't like that neither Rose or Hugo could relate to him. I guess Rose started yelling at him so of course Ron yelled back, so Hermione kicked him out, but not before he saw that Draco was there."

"So he got jealous? He needs to grow up! It's been six years and we've all moved on."

"I agree, Hermione thinks that he might show up at dinner tomorrow night."

"Why would he?"

"Because he found out that Draco has been invited to the Burrow for Sunday dinner."

"Well we will all stand behind both Hermione and Draco; Ron is a jerk for doing this to all of us."

"I'm glad to hear that, you may need to keep me from punching Ron if he does show up tomorrow." Harry said with a grin

"I'll be too busy hexing him to stop you." Ginny said smiling

Harry simply laughed before the pair went off to bed.

* * *

><p>Hermione woke up to the sunshine on her face and the feeling of a warm body beneath her. Opening her eyes she was greeted to the sight of a bare chested Draco. Startled she quickly checked her own state of dress and found that she was still in her pajamas and Draco was still wearing a pair of pajama pants. She relaxed once again onto Draco's chest listening to his heartbeat.<p>

"Comfortable?" Draco asked running a hand through Hermione's hair

"Yes, I didn't realize you were awake."

"Just woke up actually."

"We should probably get up before the kids come looking for us." Hermione said pushing herself up from Draco

"Aw but I was enjoying that." Draco said smiling

"Keep playing your cards right and we'll see." Hermione said smiling as she gathered clothes and walked into the bathroom leaving Draco smiling on the bed

Arriving in the kitchen Hermione found all three kids siting around the table eating.

"Is my dad up yet?" Scorpius asked with a smirk as Hermione got herself some tea

"He is, he should be down soon." Hermione answered blushing

"What time are we going over to the Burrow?" Hugo asked

"Same time as we usually do, so in a few hours."

"And Draco and Scorpius are coming?"

"Yes your Gran invited them."

"Good!"

"Is dad going to be there?" Rose asked

"He might be."

"Great." Rose mumbled

"Don't worry no one there will be happy to see him if he does."

"Gran might be happy to see him, remember she didn't like that you went back to your maiden name." Rose pointed out

"Well once we tell her everything she might not." Hermione said not feeling as sure of herself, she had forgotten about Molly's views of her single activity

Draco walked into the kitchen at that moment and the conversation turned away from Ron showing up later to what else they would be doing during winter break. A few hours later both families were standing in front of the fireplace and flooing over to the Burrow.

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><p>Hermione stepped out of the floo and narrowly avoided a knife as it flew past her on its way to chop some vegetables on the other side of the kitchen. Glancing around Hermione spotted Molly slamming pots and pans around on the stove. Rose, Hugo and Scorpius quickly followed out of the floo and were immediately sent out of the kitchen as more cutlery began to fly about. When Draco came out of the fireplace he had to duck very quickly as a large carving knife embedded itself in the wall behind him. Startled he quickly looked for Hermione.<p>

"I thought it was alright to be here?" He asked her worried that Molly had changed her mind of him

"It is, my guess is that Harry told her about Ron." Hermione guessed

Hearing the new voices in the kitchen Molly turned around from the stove and spotted Hermione and Draco.

"On good you're finally here!" Molly shouted pulling both Hermione and Draco into a bone crushing hug. After realizing them she turned towards Hermione, leaving Draco awkwardly standing there. "I'm very sorry that any son of mine could have done something so utterly stupid to you Hermione and if he even shows his face today he'll be wishing that he had never been born." Molly said lovingly to Hermione pulling her into another hug, once she let go Molly went back to cooking while Hermione lead Draco in the direction of the living room

"Is she always so huggy?" Draco asked once they were out of ear shot

"Huggy? I'm very sure that isn't a word." Hermione said laughing "and yes she does like to hug family when she sees them." She explained walking into the living room where the rest of the Weasleys were located

"Well I doubt Ron will be getting a hug anytime soon." Draco mumbled under his breath following Hermione

Draco stopped at the entrance to the living room and watched as Hermione greeted the various Weasley wives while the younger kids played on the floor; the older kids were elsewhere in the house, Draco guessed. Suddenly a large hand clasped down onto Draco's shoulder. Turning around Draco found Bill Weasley standing behind him.

"Nice to see you Draco, now if you don't mind some of us would like to have a quick little chat with you." Bill said leaving no room for an argument.

He steered Draco out of the living room and into an upstairs bedroom where the Weasley men were. All were standing shoulder to shoulder from Arthur down to George with Charlie and Percy in between; all men had a serious expression on their faces. Bill shut the door behind them and remained standing in front of it, he gave Draco a small push into the middle of the room. Glancing around at the assembled Weasleys, Draco gulped. George cracked first and started laughing at the worried look on Draco's face.

"Don't worry mate we're not going to hurt you." George said through his laughter

"Yeah Hermione would murder us if we did." added Charlie

"We just wanted to make sure that you have good intentions with Hermione." explained Arthur

"We don't want a repeat of what Ron did." Bill said

"I have no intentions of leaving her or anything like what Ron did." Draco said adamantly

"Good, are you going to marry her? Percy asked bluntly

"Eventually, but we haven't even talked about marriage yet; we've only been going out for a little over a month." Draco said defensively

"Well that's great, I'm glad you both aren't rushing into anything." Arthur said happily

"And, you better not screw up this relationship you have with Hugo and Rose, they really like you; I guess Hermione was right, that you've changed." Bill said in a warning tone

"I know and thank you for giving me a chance, I was actually surprised to be invited to dinner." Draco calmly said now that he knew that he wasn't going to be attacked

"That's all because of our mum, she's more open now to the idea of Hermione dating again but if it was up to us you wouldn't be invited for a while." Charlie nonchalantly said, making Draco worry once again

Before anything else could be said a knock came from the followed by Harry's voice. "Dinner is ready and Hermione says that Draco better be in once piece otherwise none of you will be eating." Harry shouted

Bill pulled open the door and grinned at Harry, "We didn't even touch him." said Bill

"Yeah we're saving that for Ron if he shows up." said George as he walked out of the room and down to the kitchen. The rest of the Weasleys followed him soon leaving Harry and Draco alone standing in the hallway.

"They seriously didn't beat you up or anything then?" Harry asked as he and Draco walked downstairs

"No they didn't, they just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to hurt Hermione." Draco explained

"And they didn't think to invite me, I'm hurt." Harry joked

"Oh shut it Potter."

"I wonder why it's so quiet." Harry said as they entered the kitchen and immediately saw the answer

There standing by the door was Ron, Kristen and Diane. Ron was nervously looking around trying not to make eye contact with any particular person. Kristen was watching Mrs. Weasley as if gauging if the small family should turn and run while Diane just smiled at everyone. All of the adult Weasleys at the table were glaring at Ron. Draco was even sure that Rose's hand was gripping her wand under the table and Hermione appeared to be resisting the urge to jinx him herself. Suddenly Kristen seemed to spot Harry, Draco and Hermione instantly recognizing them.

"Oh you three are here; Ron didn't mention that you'd be here." Kristen said surprised

"Yes well, my wife is a Weasley so…" Harry trailed off realizing that he didn't want to explain himself to her

"Ron, what are you doing here?" Molly finally asked giving Harry and Draco time to sit down next to Ginny and Hermione respectively

"Well I thought that it was about time that I came back to England." Ron said with a little confidence

"Oh yes great time." George mumbled under his breath but those sitting next to him heard him, Rose rolled her eyes at him

"And am I to assume that this is your wife and daughter?" Molly asked although she already knew

"Yes mum, this is Kristen and Diane."

"Well it's nice to meet you, we can easily add some extra chairs, and there is plenty of food." Molly said with a quick wave of her wand causing the table to expand and three extra chairs to be placed between herself and Arthur

The three sat down and the food was passed around the table. Within a few minutes a conversation was started putting a stop to the silence that had fallen upon the kitchen.

"So…how has everyone been?" Ron asked awkwardly

"Good, a majority of the kids are in Hogwarts except for Hugo and Lily, Ginny stopped playing for the Harrpies and now writes the Quidditch section for the Prophet, George's shop is doing better than ever, and Hermione is dating Draco." Molly answered seeming to be the only one who would talk to Ron but there wasn't any sort of kindness in her voice

"You stopped playing Quidditch?" Ron asked Ginny surprised

"Yes, it was hard to continue playing with three kids; I tried for a few years but decided I'd rather spend more time at home than traveling for games." Ginny said staring at Ron

Ron gulped leaving room for Kristen to say something, "Hermione you never mentioned why you would be here." She asked

Ron paled unsure of how she would answer. Hermione smiled sweetly before answering, "Well I used to be married to one of Molly's sons but he went missing on a mission six years ago." she explained

"That's horrible, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Yes it took us a while to get over the loss."

"Did you have children with him?"

"Rose and Hugo, Rose just started at Hogwarts." Hermione answered shortly indicating her children sitting next to her; Kristen smiled at them while Rose and Hugo gave her a quick glance and went back to their meals, ignoring their technical step-mother and father

"Are you still looking for him?"

"Well it was six years ago, the aurors did search but they never found his body so his status was changed from missing to dead."

"Oh I'm sorry, have you and Draco been dating for long?"

"Just a little over a month."

"That's nice."

"So how old is your daughter Ron?" Bill asked suddenly

"I'm eight!" Diane exclaimed happily

"I guess that makes her the youngest Weasley then." Arthur said off handily

"No one else is near my age?" Diane asked

"Hugo and Lily are a year older than you." Arthur told her pointing out Hugo and Lily, Lily gave a little wave while Hugo just ignored her, Diane waved back to Lily.

The kitchen feel back into silence except for the sound made by the knives and forks as everyone ate. Suddenly Kristen spoke up.

"What is wrong with all of you? You're acting like it isn't great to see your brother after he's been gone for so long." Kristen asked sharply

"Maybe if he told you what was going on when he ran away you would know why." Rose said harshly

"Rose that's enough!" Ron shouted at her while Rose pulled her wand out and stood up

"Don't shout at her!" Hermione yelled at Ron while Charlie forced Rose back in her seat and put her wand away

"I told you that she doesn't respect adults." Ron said to Hermione gesturing at Rose

"You've been keeping a secret for a little over six years and still haven't told her, Rose is just pointing that out." Hermione snapped at him standing up and slamming her hand on the table

"Draco, why don't you take all the kids into the living room please?" Molly said abruptly stopping the argument between Ron and Hermione while at the same time leaving no room for an argument from any of the kids. The older kids grumbled as they stood up and made sure that their younger siblings and cousins left the kitchen. Rose glared at Ron as she stood up and left with her cousins, Lily even grabbed Diane and brought her with them. Draco followed behind and once they were gone Molly placed a silencing charm on the kitchen door ensuring that the kids wouldn't over hear anything.

"Kristen, what has Ron told you about why he left England?" Molly asked as politely as she could, Hermione sat back in her seat

"That there was something going on with his family that was keeping him from leaving right away when I found out that I was pregnant and when he was able to leave it was on a bad note." Kristen answered truthfully looking between Molly and Ron

"Well you see Kristen that last time I saw my son he was married to someone here in England." Molly explained causing Ron to pale

"What! Ron you never mentioned that you used to be married? Why didn't you tell me?" Kristen asked him shocked that she had been lied to

"Well…Its…Its kind of complicated." Ron mumbled

"Oh yes, being married to someone for close to ten years would certainly make thing completed." Charlie snapped at Ron

"Ten years! Ron why didn't you say anything?" Kristen asked

"Maybe because he was sneaking behind his wife's back for who knows how long." George threw in before Ron could answer

"Am I allowed to defend myself?" Ron asked before one of his other brothers could say anything

"No Ron, you're not." Hermione snapped "You lost that right six years ago when you left me."

Silence fell over the table once again and like last time it was Kristen who broke it. "You're the one Hermione was talking about." she harshly whispered to Ron who could only nod his head in response, "You left a wife and two kids who thought that you were dead!"

"Look I'm not proud of it, it was a stupid decision." Ron yelled

"I'll say it was." Bill said

"Alright I get it, I was an ass to do the things I did but I want to move back to England and make things right now, that's why we're here tonight." Ron explained looking around at his family in some hope for a sign of welcome; all he got back were glares

"Ron, it will take a while for you to be truly welcomed back here and if you truly do plan on staying then you better be around more than you were before." Arthur said speaking up for the first time; Ron nodded his head in understanding to what his dad was saying.

Just then Draco walked back into the kitchen holding a small piece of parchment, "Harry this letter just came from the auror on duty back at the Ministry, there's another attack right now, he's actually trying to break into the Ministry." Draco said in a rush.

Immediately Harry stood up followed by Hermione, "Hermione you're not coming." Harry said worried

"Yes I am Harry; I'm tired of waiting around in the office." Hermione snapped at him following the two to the back door

Rose and Hugo suddenly appeared at the entrance of the kitchen with their cousins behind them, "Mum you can't go!" Hugo cried running up to her and grabbing her arm

"Hugo I'll be alright, I promise." Hermione reassured him

"You said that you wouldn't be going into the field anymore mum." Rose said from behind her brother

"You two have nothing to worry about, I'll be with Draco and Harry the whole time, the rest of the aurors will be there as well." Hermione said pulling both Rose and Hugo into a hug

"Why are they worried?" Ron whispered to Molly

"Because ever since you 'vanished' and Hermione was hurt on a mission; they've been worried about her not coming back." Arthur explained to Ron who looked ashamed

"Mum you could get hurt again." Rose said in a hushed tone

"Don't worry Rose, Harry and I will be keeping a close eye on her." Draco said

"Good."

"Now then we really need to get going." Harry said from the doorway

"Harry whatever it is my brother is doing, I no longer consider him my brother any longer." Kristen said

"Good to know." said Harry as he made his way outside with Hermione and Draco

"Want some help Harry?" Bill called to Harry before they apparated

"Just keep an eye on everything here Bill." Harry called back before disapparating with Hermione and Draco to the Ministry

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review with any thoughts you have! The next chapter probably won't be up till my semester is over in December, unless I find more time to write. <strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello my readers! Just the usually college stuff getting in the way with updating. My beta was not able to read this chapter so I am sorry for any really bad errors. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Still at the Burrow:<strong>

Bill turned back towards the house and found Rose with her wand drawn on Ron. Sighing, Bill ran up to them and could hear the accusations flying as the rest of the Weasleys stood back and watched.

"Rose calm down, all I asked was how she got hurt before." Ron said defending himself against his daughter

"It was in an auror raid five years ago." Bill explained "She got hit with a spell on her left arm and almost lost the arm, thankfully Harry was right there and they were able to get her to St. Mungo's."

Ron was shocked, "I…I…I'm sorry for not knowing." Ron said to Rose who seemed shocked at her father's statement

"Ron if you're serious about staying here in England fine we can't stop you, but you better realize that things happened after you left that changed your family that you can't change, so get over the fact that your family isn't how you imagined they would turn out and get to know them now." Bill said to Ron who nodded in agreement as Bill headed back into the house leaving Ron and Rose outside

"Rose, I'm sorry that I lost my temper yesterday; Bill's right I need to get over this image I had of our family and I have slightly it was just a shock at first."

"Fine, I accept you apology but things better change with your attitude with Draco." Rose said firmly with her hands on her hips mimicking Hermione perfectly

"I know, I know and I'll do my best but I can't promise a complete turnaround." Ron said truthfully

"Good, oh and you should probably make sure Diane knows the truth, she's acting like she's an only child and its annoying." Rose stated before heading back into the house leaving Ron with his thoughts outside.

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><p><strong>At the Ministry:<strong>

Harry, Hermione and Draco apparated directly into the atrium of the Ministry and were greeted by a full on battle between the auors and other ministry staff and Tristan's forces including Tristan himself. They immediately joined the battle which seemed to quickly turn in favor of the English. Spells were flying all around the atrium and Draco pulled Hermione behind a pile of rubble after a spell came very close to hitting her in the head.

"What are we going to do about them?" Hermione asked Harry once he joined them behind the rubble

"We need to take out Tristan; I don't think that his movement will last without him." Harry said

"Potter you better be right about this." Draco said taking a quick look over the rubble to see where Tristan was, locating him in the center of the room surrounded by his followers

"We're going to need to distract his followers somehow." Hermione said as both Draco and Harry rolled their eyes at her obvious statement

"I can get the aurors to concentrate on the followers in front of him and hopefully make a hole for us to get a shot through." Harry said

"Sounds like a very iffy plan." Draco pointed out

"Well it's the best one we have right now unless you have another one." Harry snapped at him

Fine, let's go with it then." Draco grumbled

Harry directed the aurors to concentrate on the followers directly in front of Tristan. It took a few minutes but finally the aurors over powered the followers and Harry, Draco and Hermione headed into the fray.

"Tristan!" Harry shouted over the noise of the battle "You don't have to do this!"

"Yes I do! This is the only way to change the government, to set everything back to the way it used to be." Tristan shouted back

"No one wants it run by pureblood bigots anymore!" Hermione shouted at him dodging a spell sent her way by Tristan

"You wouldn't understand, you mudblood." Tristan shouted at her

"Don't call her a mudblood!" Draco shouted firing a curse at him

Tristan deflected the curse with a smirk, "Aw how sweet, too bad you will not win this fight."

"You may want to look around Tristan, you're surrounded." Hermione pointed out, sure enough all of Tristan's followers were either captured by the aurors or dead, the only one left was him

Suddenly Tristan spun in a quick circle and with a flick of his wand caused a mass of fire to erupt outward, surrounding him like a shield. At the same time the fire also erupted outwards causing the wizards and witches to either shield themselves or take cover.

"Is that fiendfyre?" Harry asked over the roar of the flames trying to hide behind some nearby rubble

"No it isn't, Can he apparate out of here?" Hermione asked ignoring a sudden pain in her arm

"No he can't, we've increased the strength of the wards around the entire building, if he tries to apparate out he'll be sent to our maximum security holding cells." Harry explained

"When did you add that?"

"Seriously Hermione? We're in the middle of a battle and you're asking me when I changed some wards?" Harry asked in shock

"Right, bad timing."

Suddenly as soon as the fire storm had started it had ended. Hermione peaked over the rubble and looked for any sign of Tristan and found none.

"I guess he tried to apparate." Hermione said to Harry who was no longer paying attention to her but had run over to a figure lying on the ground. She turned around to find Harry and paled as she saw him kneeling above Draco's body. "No, no Draco." She cried running towards him and collapsing next to his body

"Hermione…Hermione he has a pulse." Harry said trying to get through to her as she sobbed uncontrollable

"H…He…He does." She said between tears

"Yes we need to get him to St. Mungo's, I'll go with you but then I need to come back here, alright?" Harry told her calmly trying to get her to relax a bit

"Okay." Hermione mumbled against Harry side as he helped her stand and watched as he instructed two nearby aurors in picking up Draco's body and lead them to the floo as the could not apparate with the wards still in effect.

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><p><strong>St. Mungo's<strong>

The group arrived in the lobby and was immediately swarmed by healers who whisked Draco away on a stretcher.

"Hermione will you be alright waiting here until the Weasleys arrive? I'll send them a patronus once I get back to the ministry." Harry asked he as he sat her down in a chair, she still seemed to be in shock

"Yes, I'll be fine." Hermione muttered, Harry stood to leave but Hermione quickly grabbed his arm before he could get far, "You should send a message to Lucius and Narcissa too."

"Do they know you and Draco are dating?" Harry asked concerned about leaving Hermione with people who used to hate her regardless of who she was dating

"Draco has mentioned it to them, he said that they seemed alright with it because of how bad Astoria was and they could tell that he really loves me."

"So they're okay with it?"

"Yes, we are going to have a dinner with them in the next few weeks; just Draco and I, not with the kids."

"Okay that's good, I'll send them a patronus too, I'm sure everyone will be here shortly." Harry said once again patting her on the shoulder, she nodded

Harry stepped into the floo back to settle the chaos of the ministry, leaving Hermione to her thoughts. Sitting in the lobby of St. Mungo's Hermione found herself muttering over and over again that Draco would be alright. She couldn't bear to lose another person she loved. Within a few minutes of Harry leaving the floo flared and Rose was the first person to stumble out followed by Ginny and then the rest of Weasleys. Spotting her mum Rose raced over to her and threw her arms around her in a tight hug, noticing that her mum winced slightly.

"Mum are you alright? What happened?" Rose asked worriedly as the rest of the family sat down around them

"I'm fine really, Draco was hit by some kind of fire spell and was unconscious, and I haven't heard anything further on his condition." Hermione told everyone ignoring the pain that Rose's hug had caused

"Mione I think you need your arm checked out." Ginny said gently sitting down next to her

"What do you mean? Ginny really I'm fine, maybe a little shook up but I'm fine." Hermione reassured herself and the others once again

"No really Hermione, you need to see someone about your arm, it looks like you have a really bad burn and it's on your left arm too." Bill said kneeling in front of her as Fred went to get a healer

"Bill what are you talking about? My arm isn't burned." Hermione insisted watching Ginny pull Rose back so that the healer could get closer to her. Bill leaned forward and grabbed her left arm causing her gasp in pain as he pushed up the sleeve to her robe revealing a server burn right near the scar from six years ago was.

"How did you not notice that?" The Healer asked now casting diagnostic spells on Hermione's arm before writing down some notes. "We need to go get this cleaned up and they check to see if it's caused any problems." The Healer instructed standing up and pulling Hermione with him. "Don't worry we won't be long." He added seeing the worried looks on Rose and Hugo's faces.

The Weasleys watched Hermione and the Healer vanish down the hallway and just as they were settling down in the lobby, Harry arrived from the Ministry.

"Where's Hermione? How's Draco?" Harry asked quickly glancing around at the family, looking over Ron's slight grimace at the mention of Draco

"Hermione ended up have a bad burn on her left arm near where her injury was six years ago, the healer said it was nothing to worry about so I imagine they'll be back soon; we haven't heard anything about Draco yet." Arthur informed Harry

"Alright, Narcissa and Lucius should be here soon with Scorpius; I didn't realize that you sent him back home after we left." Harry said sitting down in an empty seat

"We felt that it would be better if he was with family incase anything happened." Molly explained looking up from the knitting that she had in her handbag

"Right, that's good thinking Molly."

Molly reached over and patted Harry leg, "They'll both be just fine dear, there is no need to worry." She said

They were shortly joined by the Malfoys and Scorpius sat down next to Rose ignoring the annoyed look Ron was giving him. Now the two families simply had to wait for news.

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><p><strong>Please Leave a review with your thoughts! This story might be on hiatus for a few months depending on how busy my semester gets, so the updates may not be monthly like before. Leave a review!<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Can it be true? A new chapter! I'm very sorry for not posting this sooner (it's been sitting on my laptop for a while). I wanted to finish the story in this chapter but it looks like that'll come in the next chapter. Enjoy! And sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

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><p>A few hours later a Healer walked into the lobby.<p>

"Family of Hermione Granger?" the Healer called

"That's us!" Harry shouted so loudly that it startled the healer who then walked over to them

"Are all of you allowed to know her information?" The Healer asked observing the whole Weasley family

"Harry, how about the Healer just tells you for now." Ginny advised glancing at the worried looks on Rose and Hugo's faces

"Sure thing." Harry said walking off with the Healer to a more private location, he wasn't gone long and when he came back to where the family was he was smiling, "Hermione is awake and waiting to see us, the burn is all healed and thankfully her previous injury wasn't bothered by it; the Healer would prefer though if all of us didn't go back at once though."

"Well then take Rose and Hugo back with you; we'll wait on news about Draco." Ginny said pushing forward her niece and nephew to follow Harry

Harry disappeared down the hallway with Rose and Hugo behind him while the rest of the family settled back in their seats waiting for news about Draco.

"Um, so what's so bad about the scar on her arm?" Ron asked rubbing the back of his neck nervously, glancing at his family

The older Weasleys all exchanged glances before Bill answered, "We're not quite sure the type of severing hex that was used but it had dark magical properties and when it hit her arm it completely severed her arm, Harry was right next to her and caught both her and the section of her arm that was cut off as soon as it happened and apparated straight to St. Mungo's; the only problem was that it took forever for the Healers to figure out how to reattach her arm and they believe that there is still some dark magic residue in the scar which is why they were worried about where the burn was."

"But it's all healed now? Right?" Ron asked now worried

"Yes, until today there had never been any problems with the scar." explained Bill

"Good, good." Ron mumbled to himself

Just then another Healer came out asking for the family of Draco Malfoy. Narcissa rushed over while Lucius kept Scorpius back and within a few minutes the three Malfoys headed down the hall with smiles on Narcissa's and Scorpius' faces.

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><p><strong>Hermione's Room (a few minutes earlier):<strong>

Hermione was sitting up in her hospital bed waiting for the Healer to return with Rose and Hugo; she knew that Harry would bring the two of them back first before the rest of the family. Glancing down at her bandaged arm, she was glad that the injury wasn't any worse. At that moment the door opened and slowly Rose and Hugo entered the room. Upon seeing their mum awake they ran to the bed, climbed on it and her.

"I glad you're alright mum." Hugo mumbled into Hermione's hair, "Me too." said Rose added from her place next to her mother

"The rest of the family is also glad you're alright." Harry added from the doorway smiling at the family in front of him

"How's Draco?" Hermione asked worriedly looking at Harry

"I haven't heard any news but I can go find out for you if you want."

"Yes, please Harry." She whispered into her children's hair

Harry nodded with a smile before slipping out of the room, leaving the family to themselves.

"Mum will Draco be okay?" Hugo asked

"I'm sure he will be fine sweetie" Hermione said ruffling his hair

"Good because I like him, he's nice." Hugo declared, "I agree" Rose added with a smile

"Is the whole family outside?" Hermione asked slightly wondering why Molly wasn't barging in the room by this point

"Everyone except out Aunts and cousins, oh and Kristen, Ron convinced her to stay at the Burrow." Rose explained

"You know you can still call him dad if you want."

"He has to earn it back and I think he understands that."

"Well alright then."

A soft knock on the door stopped the conversation and Harry stuck his head in the room, "Draco is alright, the drama queen only got knocked out by some debris, he's awake now and his parents and Scorpius are in his room."

"Draco isn't a queen, he's a guy!" Hugo explained to his uncle with a laugh

"It's a figure of speech Hugo." Rose tried to explain

"That's a weird one then since he's a guy." Hugo argued, Rose just rolled her eyes at him causing Harry and Hermione to laugh

"Oh and the rest of the family would love to come back and see you, they did promise not to be over-bearing." Harry said with a laugh

"Sounds fine to me, I would like to be able to go see Draco as well; Oh and how long do the Healers wish to keep me?"

"I'll find that out for you and when you can see Draco." Harry reassured her as he headed out of the room

"Mum, Ron said that he would get a better attitude about Draco." Rose informed Hermione

"He did, did he?" Hermione asked surprised

"It may have taken Rose threatening to jinx him and Uncle Bill stopping her but yeah he agreed." Hugo interjected before Rose could say anything

Hermione chuckled to herself. Soon the calmness in the room was broken when the Weasleys appeared in the door; the whole family seemed to squeeze in the hospital room to check on Hermione.

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><p>In less than a week Hermione was back home and was given a month off of work along with Draco since the case was done. With their free time they decided to move in together. There was only one problem; Hermione didn't want to live in Malfoy Manor and Hermione's house wasn't big enough for them all.<p>

"We do not need a giant manor Draco." Hermione repeated for probably the fourteenth time that morning

Draco looked at her over the newspaper clippings of for sale homes confused, "Of course we need a manor, where else am I going to put all my stuff?"

"Seriously? You use like half of what is actually in Malfoy Manor and you'll still own that place to give to Scorpius so all of that stuff can just stay there, so I don't see why it matters."

"I've always had a big house! These things are very important." He whined

"You're sounding like a spoiled child again." Hermione said with a smirk

"Fine, we'll get the place you like. But I don't know how we will live with only five rooms, one master bedroom, one study and one library."

"You're making it sound like each of those rooms is small, they are all decently large and don't forget there are four bathrooms, two dining rooms and two living rooms and a hug kitchen to please you; even though you don't cook so I don't know why you need a big kitchen."

"But you love to cook so it is for you."

Hermione couldn't resist the smile he added at the end of the sentence and leaned over the table to kiss him. It was that moment that Hugo decided to come running into the room crying, not noticing what his mum was doing, followed by an angry Rose. Hugo ran straight to his mum and threw himself in her lap while Rose just stomped up to the table.

"If you two are done making out we would really appreciate it if you would block Ron from the floo." Rose asked as politely as she could in her current angry state

"What happened? This is only the fourth time you've spent time with him and you both have said that is going well." Hermione asked comforting Hugo, Draco looked ready to go and lock the floo right then and there but he waited to hear what Rose had to say

"Diane, that's the problem!"

"Um, honey you'll need to be more specific since I don't understand why she is a reason to lock the floo from Ron."

Hugo and I were reading in the living room while Ron was finishing up some house work for Kristen and Diane came in and proceeded to push Hugo off his chair claiming that Ron didn't care about us, this made Hugo cry and her and I got into a fight, then I noticed that Hugo was leaving by the floo and I followed him here." Rose explained in a rush

"So Ron is probably at his house worrying about what he did wrong to make you both leave." Draco stated startling both Hermione and Rose

"He probably is, we should all go over and explain what happened." Hermione said to both Rose and Hugo

"Can't you just go mum?" Hugo mumbled

"We are all going and that is final, then he will see that you don't hate him and you can settle this problem with Diane." She said sternly

"Fine." Both children grumbled and dragged their feet back towards the fireplace to floo over

"Draco, we will finish this when I get back." Draco nodded and watched Hermione prepare herself to deal with the mess her children left behind at her ex-husband's house

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><p>Arriving at Ron's house before her children; Hermione could hear Ron and Kristen arguing in the kitchen.<p>

"She's just confused Ron; it's a lot to get used to!"

"Yeah well she didn't need to lie to them and say that I hate them!"

"I agree but that is still no reason to shout at her, you could have sat her down and explained things; now she thinks you hate her."

"See mom," Rose whispered, "Diane hates us."

"Oh shush," Hermione snapped, "Ron! Ron, I've brought Rose and Hugo back with me." She shouted from the living room

A bang could be heard from the kitchen and then Ron appeared in the entryway of the living room looking relieved.

"Oh good you're back, I was worried you wouldn't want to come again." Ron said nervously his eyes darting between Rose and Hugo

"Well in our defense mom said we needed to apologize for leaving and not telling you." Rose said but she didn't sound mad about it anymore

A frown appeared on Ron's face, "Right, of course."

"I think it would still be nice if we could see you though." Hugo chimed in, putting a smile back on Ron's face

"I wanted them to apologize for leaving and not telling you." Hermione explained "Obviously you need to discuss things over with Diane a bit more and I understand if you would like us to give you a little space to do that, there is still a few weeks left of winter break before Rose goes back to school so don't feel rushed."

"Right as always Hermione." Ron said with a laugh, Kristen was now standing next to Ron and nodded her head in agreement

"You can send an owl when you're ready, like mom said I still have two weeks I believe." Rose chimed in seeing that it made both Ron and Hugo happy she figured she'd accept seeing him before she went back

"Yeah! We could go get ice-cream!" Hugo said excitedly

"Haha, I'd like that, I'll be in touch." Ron said giving both Rose and Hugo a hug which both children returned

"Good luck you two." Hermione said to Ron and Kristen as Rose and Hugo left through the fireplace

"Thanks Hermione." Kristen said with a smile, "We'll need it, Diane is as stubborn as Ron."

"Yes I know how that goes, you'll find a way, keep in touch." Hermione said with a parting wave and left though the fireplace as well

"I think Hermione might be softening up to you." Ron said to Kristen as he pulled her into a hug

"Ha, that'll be the day, now let's go get this talk over with." Kristen said dragging Ron upstairs to Diane's room

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><p>Arriving back Hermione found just Draco sitting in kitchen.<p>

"Where did they go?" Hermione asked sitting at the table

"Back to their rooms, everything go okay?" Draco asked glancing up at her from the housing information

"Yes it seemed too, both Rose and Hugo want to see Ron again and Ron wants to see them again."

"That's good, how about this house? I know I had agreed on the other one but this one is a nice cottage and still has five bedrooms, a library, big kitchen, living room, dining room and a huge library."

"A cottage sounds just lovely and perfect Draco." Hermione declared with a smile and kiss which Draco returned passionately

"When do you want to buy it and move?" Draco asked after they broke apart from the kiss

"How about once the kids have gone back to school, they can pack there things before they leave."

"Sounds like a great plan, less work for us." Draco declared causing Hermione to laugh as she dragged him upstairs to their bedroom

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><p><strong>I hope you all enjoyed it! Please leave a review. The epilogue will be coming next :D<strong>


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